


A Flower Bud In Concrete

by Oleander_Lights



Series: Ultra Sword and Shield: The Full Adventure And Beyond! [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Bittersweet, Dark, F/F, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Friendship/Love, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Sex, Injury, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mild Sexual Content, Near Death Experiences, Oleana is a good mom, Parenthood, Past Relationship(s), Sad and Happy, Single Parents, Smoking, Teen Romance, Teenage Rebellion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:22:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23618953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oleander_Lights/pseuds/Oleander_Lights
Summary: When Eternatus attacks Hammerlocke a mother and son are forced to relive their whole lives leading up to that moment.And while many experiences of their lives they’re quite happy to relive, there are other far darker experiences that draw frightening revelations to the surface.But one question remains, will they make it out of Hammerlocke alive or will Eternatus claim two more victims?
Relationships: Makuwa | Gordie/Nezu | Piers, Nezu | Piers/Sonia (Pokemon), Olive | Oleana/Original Character(s), Olive | Oleana/Rose | Chairman Rose, Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: Ultra Sword and Shield: The Full Adventure And Beyond! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668469
Comments: 56
Kudos: 26





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically a do over of my fic “You Broke Your Children For Life”. Which I deleted due to me falling out of love with the premise in general along with how I portrayed some characters and in general the missed opportunities of the fic itself so I decided to rewrite the fic with the new idea.
> 
> And title comes from “More” by Halsey
> 
> Also keep in mind while Oleana is a good mom in this unlike in the original. This fic also goes a lot harder on the dark elements just like the Adventures Manga, so don’t expect everyone to be like they are in the games. As there will be a lot of unsavory things in this fic. And while this first chapter is short the other chapters will be much longer (and much darker).
> 
> Also this is a natdex included AU because screw dexit! We’re having all the Pokémon in the Ultra Sword and Shield series baby!

She already felt the gaze of the young man on her, the storm of energy raged outside the stadium as a powerful beast was above it capable of unimaginable destruction and chaos. The city had been evacuated, of course, the league wasn’t stupid. Reckless, yes, but certainly not imbecilic.

~~_The beast, Eternatus, hell demon, Giratina’s spawn, freak of nature, beast from the great beyond, possible Ultra Beast._ ~~

Standing before her was a young man, Piers Iskra, her son and the current head of Team Yell. He looked upon his mother with a grave expression upon his pallid complexion, he looked awfully tired as though he hadn’t slept in years maybe even decades despite the fact he himself was only twenty-six years of age.

“I am so sorry,” her voice was barely even a whisper. The storm which thundered away outside was practically deafening, the world was being ripped apart at the seams. 

It was the fault of the man down below in the power plant, who was currently being held off by a boy from postwick, a teenager who was arrogant beyond belief, and her daughter, Spikemuth’s princess, Marnie.

Well, it was _almost_ the fault of the man, had _two very certain celebrities_ not played with the man’s anxiety like a toy. She wanted to kill the freaks who had toyed with him, murder them in cold blood, sic the Team Yell Houndooms on them to rip them bloody limb from bloody limb. What scared most people was that that last part wasn’t an exaggeration when Oleana said something like that, she meant it.

She was a lioness in her own right, a fearsome vice chairwoman, mother, former researcher, and businesswoman. She was like a Phoenix, she raised herself up from the ashes into the woman she was today. She wasn’t like a Phoenix, no, she was _the Phoenix_ , she had raised herself and she had taught her children to set fire to the world just as she had. Consequences be damned.

The beast which had begun to cause the storm was high above in the sky, in the hands of a boy hellbent on proving himself and a girl who had come from Postwick.

~~_The beast, Eternatus, hell demon, Giratina’s spawn, freak of nature, beast from the great beyond, possible Ultra Beast._ ~~

In other words, the world was in the hands of two children if the champion were to be incapacitated by the beast. Which was an utterly petrifying idea in itself alone. The fate of the world, in the hands of two children, and if the children lost the world would be completely damned to a barren wasteland.

Arceus only knew where the other children who had come to help were. The ice princess from a town of perpetual winter, the teenager who was an heir to her father’s unfathomable wealth, and a girl who had sprung out of Hammerlocke with a Gastly by her side.

Piers’ expression twisted ever so slightly, “What do you mean? There’s nothing to apologize for Mum,”. His voice was as flat and expressionless as always, but through all that non-expression Oleana thought she heard the anger in her son’s voice.

Another roar of energy came from overhead and shook the stadium hall, the beast, Eternatus, hell demon, freak of nature, beast from the great beyond, possible Ultra Beast, whatever you want to call it was getting angrier. Not angrier, becoming completely and utterly _irate_ was more like it.

~~_The beast, Eternatus, hell demon, Giratina’s spawn, freak of nature, beast from the great beyond, possible Ultra Beast._ ~~

“If the champion or those two kids doesn’t get that thing under control we’re all doomed!” Oleana shouted over the roar of the energy coming from overhead, the force which shook the hall they were in knocked the two to the floor.

A piece of the stone ceiling landed in between mother and son which sent another wave of shaking through the whole stadium, it was only a matter of minutes now before the whole building would collapse, killing everyone inside. Then two other pieces fell from the ceiling milliseconds apart and landed on Piers’ left and Oleana’s right. That’s it, they were completely goners if they didn’t get out right this second. The two pieces sent two more waves of vibration through the stadium as they fell.

“You’re tellin’ me?” Piers shouted right back at his mother over the rumbling, “We’re gonna _die_ in here Mum if we don’t get out!”, now the flatness has escaped her son’s voice completely, she could hear the terror in it now. There was nothing to deny now, there was absolutely no hiding the fear. No way in hell.

Piers tried to stagger up, but an ear-splitting crack of stone came from above. Oleana turned her head up and bits of debris began to sprinkle down from the ceiling. Oleana tried to get up as her son had but alas, the stone had broken free from the ceiling and began its way down, down, and down. 

The force of the stone slab as it collided with the mother and son knocked them back onto the floor. It shook the stadium again, this time with much more force than the previous three stones that had fallen. It would probably be only a minute or two before the whole place collapsed with everyone inside and left Eternatus victorious and with no one to stop it from continuing its reign of terror throughout all the universe.

She looked over to where Piers had landed, and there he lay, blood pooled from his head which caused the white parts of his hair to be stained red and completely unconscious. He looked even more pale than usual too, the color had begun to drain away from his body. It was clear he would very soon be dead from blood loss alone, if not from the trauma of his head banging against the floor.

Oleana couldn’t scream as she stared as her unconscious son, mascara tears streaming down her face, the stone was just too heavy on her chest. But, if by some miracle of nature she made it out of here alive the two who had started this day had better be ready to be skinned like a live Elektrik. No one hurt her children and lived, _no one_ , after all, dead men tell no tales.

“ _Don’t worry Piers_ ,” her voice was silent, “ _I’ll get out of this place and skin those responsible alive, don’t worry my son_ ,”, was her silent promise to her incapacitated son, “ _Even if I don’t. I promise Marnie will_ ,”.

Then she felt the wetness around her, she was bleeding too, and bleeding _fast_. Likely as fast as Piers if not _faster_ , she was going to be dead before morning came. Oleana Kornelia Iskra prepared to breathe her very last. She was only forty-four years old, younger than her own mother had been giving birth to Oleana’s youngest sibling, and three years younger than Aunt Dagmar had been at the time of her own demise.

Oleana guessed she should have prepared to end her days like any ruffian from Spikemuth, former or not, did. _Bloody, chaotic, violent_ , and usually at the hands of someone or something else. In this case at the hands of a beast called Eternatus, a skeletal dragon Pokémon that had burst free of its embryo where it had hibernated for thousands of years and had injured hundreds in the process.

“ _I am so, so sorry I couldn’t protect you, Piers and Marnie, don’t ever forget me or what we’ve been through, Marnie if you make it please remember me and the others left behind_ ,” the blonde woman paused her silent words for a moment, “ _Marnie if you make it please remember that you are beautiful, kind, smart, and brave no_ _matter what anyone ever tells you. Even though Piers and I might not be with you we will always be with you from the great beyond, you will make a fine whatever you choose to do in life, I know it_ ,” the blonde paused her silent words again as began to feel faint, “ _Mr. Rose, I mean Rose, if you make it promise me you’ll find a way to solve the energy crisis, promise me you’ll try. Please try to find the love and good in this broken world_ ,”.

Black dots began to fill the blonde woman’s vision. Her consciousness was fading all around her as the world began to blur through the black dots and tears as her silent song continued, “ _Prim_ _, oh Prim. I know this world can be scary and I know you know this, but you have to follow what you want and not what others want for you. So in other words go with your mum or go become a battle boss, as long as it’s what you want! And Bede, Bede I know you_ -,” but she couldn’t finish, her brain had begun to blackout, the blood loss had become too much for her, it wouldn’t be much longer before her body was stone cold to the touch.

Her world was plunged into complete and utter darkness. Her final thought being that of the day Piers was born into this world.


	2. I'll make the world safe and sound for you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title taken from Dear Theodosia from Hamilton.
> 
> I came up with Oleana, Piers, and Marnie’s last and middle names myself.

Oleana writhed in the hospital bed as another contraction hit her, stringing together a song of obscenities too profane to be written down here. Let’s just say the word “ _fuck_ ” was used far more times than it should ever be used in one sentence.

She was alone in a run-down hospital room in Spikemuth. Eighteen and already giving birth to her first child. It was common for Spikemuth mothers to have children young but still somewhat rare to have them younger than or while they were eighteen.

Most people didn’t feel bad for her though. When you’re a known spitfire who got into fights near-daily before you got pregnant, people, as Oleana learned, only tended to feel scornful of you.

“Oh, blonde hottie gets her life ruined because she had unprotected sex! _Waaah so sad_!” she had heard a girl at graduation say in a mocking tone to a friend, the two girls then began to snicker sickeningly.

Oleana would have challenged that girl to fight had she not been eight months pregnant. So she just pounded her fist on her thigh and pretended not to hear, still wanting to slam her fist into that girl’s pretty face and bust her teeth.

“ _Slut_ ,” others had whispered when she walked by in the hall, sometimes accompanied by shoves from a few of her more rude classmates. 

“ _Whore_ ,” some people had said, and quite loudly and with sideways glares directed at Oleana.

At least twice she had gotten “ _slut_ ” or “ _whore_ ” on a piece of paper taped to her back. Or a “ _kick me_ ” sign, to which kicks would accompany the sign. Though if Oleana hadn’t been pregnant no one would have dared to kick her.

Thinking about it, being pregnant had protected and prevented Oleana from getting into a lot of fights. Mostly because people would rather not fight a girl who had a baby growing in her stomach.

An aging nurse stood in the corner of the room, she was to be the one to look after the mum-to-be, not that she was particularly pleased to be looking after a screaming and cursing girl. But you gotta do what you gotta do to have money in the bank.

“Where is that doctor? I want the epidural!” Oleana hissed through gritted teeth.

“He’s seeing another patient miss,” the nurse said with a sigh, knowing exactly how to hopefully defuse situations like these from all her years of work.

“Tell him to get in here!” Oleana hissed again as she pounded her slender fists on the hospital bed.

“I’ll do my best Miss,” said the nurse as she went to go search for the doctor.

Oleana’s mum, dad, and twelve siblings were nowhere near the hospital. Her parents were probably at home, her eldest sister Nadia was likely off on one of her modeling shoot, and her older twin brothers were off at university in Wyndon. and Arceus only knew where the other nine were. The rest were probably scattered about Spikemuth doing whatever, except for the little ones, they were probably still at home with her mum and dad.

“ _You’re on your own_!” was the response from her eldest sister when Oleana had called her six months ago asking for asylum at her apartment, “ _You got yourself into this mess and now you have to get yourself out of it_ ,” had been the response her sister gave her before she hung up.

She’d gotten similar responses from her brothers, and her parents too. (“ _You have one hour to get out of this house_ ,” had been her mother’s response when Oleana had told her mother she was pregnant). She was currently living out of her Aunt Dagmar’s house, thank Arceus she had been kind enough to let her stay.

“Arceus fuck!” Oleana mumbled as another contraction hit her as she tried to keep it quiet so she wouldn’t get scolded by the nurse for being loud.

She gritted her teeth and stared up at the yellowed ceiling. It reminded her of the ones at school, filthy and damaged from a lack of funds due to the town being dirt poor. The governor had promised renovations to public administrations, but like always it never happened.

Looks like she wasn’t getting out of this town one day, she was trapped, no chance at university, or any higher education. All that had been stripped away from her the day she got pregnant. But getting pregnant did have one good impact on the eighteen-year-old Oleana. She had started to clean up her act. No more drinking, smoking, partying, or doing drugs. The second she had become pregnant she decided she would do anything and everything to be a good mother to her baby. She’d gotten a job as a researcher, it didn’t pay much but it would pay the bills enough.

She slammed her fists as she stared at the yellowed ceiling. It looked sickening if she were, to be honest, an ugly vomit color, it reminded her of a tea stain on one of the table cloths at her parents’ house. Which were filled with them due to the impossible nature of getting tea stains out of tablecloths.

“Piers Oleg Iskra for a boy, Marnie Anastasia Iskra for a girl,” thought Oleana as she tried to get her mind off her contractions, which was practically impossible given how much they hurt like hell.

Repetition. “Gets one's mind off of things,” Oleana’s English teacher once told her. Maybe her English teacher had been right, well now there was only one way to find out.

“Synonyms for painful. Sore, hurting, tender, aching, throbbing, burning, irritating, agonizing, excruciating, gut-wrenching, and biting,” thought Oleana as another contraction hit and she released a shrill screech, it was almost animalistic.

She slapped her hands on the rock hard hospital bed. They started to grow an absolutely angry shade of scarlet.

“Fuck this hospital, fuck this doctor, and fuck this pregnancy,” Oleana thought as she sat up in bed and crossed her arms over her chest, “I swear to _Arceus_ I will rip this baby out of me if they don’t start going a bit quicker,”.

* * *

By the next morning, the baby still hadn’t arrived but one thing had changed, Oleana Kornelia Iskra was ready to begin pushing. She chucked her water bottle and it whizzed by the doctor’s head, to which the doctor shot her an unimpressed stare at his eighteen-year-old patient.

As if the pain from last night wasn’t enough, it had gotten oh, she didn’t know, right about a thousand times worse! It felt like someone was stabbing her in the abdomen with a freshly sharpened knife.

“Miss Iskra I’m going to need you to push when I tell you too,” said the doctor calmly, as though he had been doing this sort of thing his whole life.

“Push!” shouted the doctor as he got his hands into a position to catch the baby.

Oleana screeched, good Arceus it felt like her insides were being put through the shredder. She felt like she was _dying_.

“Relax. You’re doing great Miss Iskra,” said the doctor after a few seconds.

Oleana heaved in and out heavily, she felt like she was running a marathon. Absolutely drenched in sweat and her face a furious shade of red.

“Push!” said the doctor again as another contraction hit.

Oleana pushed and then felt a giant release as she fell back onto the hospital bed. Her baby was out, after nine months they had arrived to their mother. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be too disappointed by the life they had been born into. Or the mother they would have or the life they would eventually lead when they grew up.

“Piers Oleg Iskra for a boy, Marnie Anastasia Iskra for a girl,” thought Oleana as sweat beads dripped down her forehead.

A loud cry pierced the room. Her baby taking its very first breaths of life in this world, more like it was a scream. Like the baby screamed a primal song it did not yet know, and would not know for many years. Oleana found it slightly beautiful and fascinating in a sort of peculiar way.

“You have a beautiful bouncing baby boy!” the doctor announced proudly to Oleana with a smile on his wrinkled face.

“Well if that cry is anything then Piers will be an accurate name for my son,” Oleana heaved in between steep, gulping breaths.

Oleana looked as the nurse cleaned off the baby boy, no not the baby boy, HER baby boy. Her son. The baby boy she had carried within her for nine months. The baby boy she had given life to. The baby boy would give the best life she could too.

“Piers Oleg Iskra,” said Oleana breathlessly as she stared up at the ceiling, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she breathed in and out. 

“The name?” asked the doctor, “Is that the name?”. The doctor had one of his eyebrows raised ever so slightly.

Oleana just nodded as she sat up. The nurse brought over the now quiet baby who was wrapped in a thick white blanket decorated with yampers and bolts of electricity.

“Would you like to hold him?” the nurse asked in a sweet tone.

Oleana nodded and held out her arms. She pulled her newborn son close to her body as she received him. He felt like a warm water bottle against her skinny chest, she knew that was a strange comparison to draw. A newborn feeling like a warm water bottle, but it certainly fit, however strange it may be.

Arceus, he was tiny, not short, but long and thin like an Inteleon. He was only a few minutes old and he already had a thick head of black and white hair, his skin was pallid, and his eyes were seafoam green.

So this was the baby boy she had carried for nine months and now she was finally holding him in her arms. Woefully unprepared, aching from forty-eight hours of labor, a brain fried from finals, insides that felt like they had been through the shredder, insanely exhausted, sweaty, and more than a little out of breath.

But there was her son, too small, too weak, too fragile to survive without her. She felt something deep within her, a strangeness to protect this little baby boy. Something she had never felt before in her life. It had always been fight, fight, fight, with her but now she only wanted to protect the little creature she had just given life to.

It may not have been what she imagined when she gave birth, but her baby was here now. And that was all that really mattered in the long run, she had a healthy baby, and that was the best she could have hoped for.

It was certainly different than when she had held each of her younger newborn siblings. Those she could hand off to her parents if they started to fuss, but she would not be able to do that with Piers. She would have to answer to his every need and want until he was old enough to do such things himself. 

“Don’t worry,” Oleana whispered to Piers in a near silence voice, “I got you, and I’m not going anywhere,”. She lightly rocked the baby boy in her scrawny arms.

Something in her stomach flipped as she said that. Labor hadn’t been a cakewalk and neither would parenting, especially being a single parent.

Was she woefully unprepared? Yes. Was she scared out of her wits? Oh hell yes. Did she have any idea what was to come? No, but maybe that was for the best.

“Someday you’ll find out what I went through, I promise, when you’re older and you can understand without thinking of me as cold,” Oleana kissed her son on his forehead.


	3. Hold on to this lullaby Even when the music's gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lullaby Oleana sings to Piers is Sleepsong by Secret Garden.
> 
> Sorry this took so long to get out, but I was busy with school all this week.
> 
> Chapter title is taken from “Safe and Sound” by Taylor Swift.

Two years had passed since Piers’ birth and Oleana had continued to live out of her Aunt Dagmar’s house. 

She had been no contact with her parents and siblings for just as long. Her parents had stopped by to see her in the hospital.

Today Piers was being fussy as many toddlers tend to be and wore the expression of a Toxel.

Oleana had her hands on her hips as she stared at the little boy who had been in a fuss since that morning. Her patience for her son was beginning to wear thin.

“Mummy needs to work,” said Oleana with a sigh as she plopped her toddler son into his crib.

She sighed once again as she returned to her desk and continued to work on what would be the Dynamax band. It was rough but it was something.

A curve around the wrist, what type of wires and chips would be needed to complete such a device. Surely the technology for it would be ready in a year or two and then she could sell her design for millions and be so rich she and Piers move out of this hell hole of a town. Then Piers would be able to get a good education.

“Mummy!” said Piers as he clung to the bars on his crib.

“In a minute pumpkin,” said Oleana as she placed the design in her portfolio.

She caught a glimpse of the scrawny toddler boy with his arms crossed in light frustration at being made to wait.

She placed the portfolio in a drawer in her desk and locked it as though she were a scientist working on a top-secret project. When in reality she was twenty years old with a job as a researcher. Barely scraping by and dreading the day Aunt Dagmar would eventually kick her out.

The phone on her desk rang and she picked her up quickly, she could hear Piers release a pout of frustration, another roadblock had shot up in between spending time with his mother.

“Hullo,” she answered in an emotionless tone, expecting one of her colleagues to be on the other end.

Instead muffled loud and wild music played on the other end, a memory of her high school days filled her mind. Nights spent out partying and drinking. She could still see the image of the bar in her head.

The room lit with purple lights giving the whole room the feeling of being in a dream, despite the bar itself being somewhat rundown itself. The place where Piers was likely conceived during a night of passion with her and his father.

She could smell beer and liquor was thick in the air, giving it a musky odor that coated the whole room even though it was just a mere memory from days of old.

“Ollie!” a voice cooed from the other end, over the loud, thumping punk music on the other end.

Oleana knew that voice anywhere. Diane. One of the few people not to abandon her after she had Piers. And Oleana’s best friend since Kindergarten besides her Trubbish (which was now a Garbodor).

“How’s the kiddo doing tonight? Does he miss Auntie Diane?” cooed Diane on the other end of the phone.

“Oh, he does!” Oleana said as she peered back at her young son. 

Piers was snuggling with a Galarian zigzagoon plush in his crib as he watched his mum talk to Diane, his cyan eyes flashing with high intensity. The little boy waiting as patiently as he could to play with his mother, his scrawny little knees packed up to his chest.

He had shown much interest in music in his young age and not intellectual things as Oleana had expected any offspring of hers would.

“Well maybe I could babysit again sometime!” chuckled Diane clearly under the influence of some sort of alcohol.

“That would be nice,” Oleana said, a bit taken aback.

“Perhaps you should join me!” laughed Diane, “It’d be just like the old days before you had Piers!”.

“The old days before you had Piers,” the words echoed around her head like it was some sort of great canyon where voices could travel for hours and reach the mouth at night.

“Oh, I would be happy to join you!” Oleana said with a smile, “But Piers has had a cold that has kept me cooped up all week with him, and I don’t want to pass it on to you !” Then the lie came.

“How’s the poor little guy doing? Is he okay now?” sighed Diane in a worried tone.

“Oh, he’s fine! He was sneezing and coughing up a lung for the past week, he’s gotten over it in the last two days though,” Oleana lied.

“Poor little guy,” murmured Diane, the music in the background almost drowning out her voice.

Diane then began again, “Us three will make it out of this town one day. We’ll buy a place in Wyndon and Piers will be able to get a good education, don’t worry Oleana, I can see everything fall into place,”.

“Ever the dreamer, aren’t you Diane?” said Oleana with a slight smirk.

“It keeps you sane when things go to shit,” said Diane, Oleana imagined her shrugging as she said this.

There then came a loud ruckus from behind Diane, a fight had broken out wherever she was. Fights were common in Spikemuth, especially at concerts where fans tended to get incredibly rowdy and drunk. On the worst of times, people would start breaking furniture over other people. Sometimes people would even break bottles of alcohol over the heads of others causing blood to pour out of their foreheads. Blood would go all around during those types of fights.

Oleana had been in those types of fights far more times than she would like to have admitted. She remembered the smell of blood, alcohol, sweat, and cigarette smoke in the air. The cuts, scars, and bruises on her body that she would discover when she returned home to the bedroom she shared with her siblings.

“Still ever the troublemaker?” Oleana said, she felt like a mother scolding a child, “Wherever you are you’d better leave,”.

“Boooo you’re no fun!” said Diane, “I’ll be fine!”. 

The line then went dead accompanied by a loud and persistent beep.

Oleana went over to her son’s crib and picked him up, “I’d say Diane is in quite a bit of trouble,”.

Piers just looked at his mother with a confused look upon his tiny face.

* * *

_“Mum! Piers!” Marnie’s aching voice was but a distant echo in the void, “Oh Arceus!”._   
  


* * *

A few hours later when it was nearly midnight, Oleana sat at home with a toddler Piers who was dressed in Galarian Zigzagoon pajamas.

“Tsk, tsk,” said Oleana as she looked at the clock on the wall, “She’s out so late, even for her,”.

Her eyes turned to her sleeping son.

“One day you will learn that the world can be kind Piers, one day, maybe not soon, but you will one day,” said Oleana as Piers light shifted in his sleep.

Piers’ black and white hair was lightly tousled from resting on Oleana’s chest, which is where he fell asleep most nights.

“Diane, what am I going to do with her?” sighed Oleana as Piers slept peacefully in her arms, “I know I shouldn’t associate myself with her or Auntie Dag but I have to. After all, besides you, they’ve all I’ve got left,”. She paused for a moment, “With all that goes on with those two it would be safer to just live on my own with you,”.

“Perhaps it’s because I remember the days Diane was small and pure like you are now,” whispered Oleana.

And Piers began to stir in the arms of his mother.

She began to sing a lullaby to try to calm him. 

“May there always be angels to watch over you, to guide you each step of the way, to guard you and keep you safe from all harm,” Oleana sang softly, “May you bring love and may you bring happiness, be loved in return to the end of your days,”.

“Loo-li, loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay,” Oleana’s soft voice grew to a whisper, “Piers, there is always someone in this world that loves you,”.

And with that, she planted a kiss on her sons’ forehead and headed off to bed with him.

* * *

_“The whole building might come down you moron! And in a matter of minutes too!” it was Marnie again, her choked and terrified voice echoing in the void, “We have to get out of here!”._

* * *

Oleana awoke to the sun filtering through the blinds of her bedroom.

Her head thumped like a weighted drum, damn migraine, it would be gone by noon.

“Ah, I see Miss Oleana Kornelia Iskra has woken up from her beauty nap,” a sharp voice said.

Oleana’s head turned towards the source. A chill went down her fragile spine as she did.

Aunt Dagmar stood in the doorway wearing a navy blue dress and a sour expression with sleeping Piers on her hip still in his pajamas from the night before.

“Hi, Auntie, I feel a tad ill right now,” said Oleana trying to sweeten up her voice for the older woman.

Aunt Dagmar stepped forward, her expression souring even more. She cast a long shadow over her niece.

“I bet you would. Now you have until this evening to get out of here with Piers,” Aunt Dagmar said as she lowered her voice to a deathly quiet tone, “I’m sorry, but you can’t stay here anymore,”.

“Oh shit,” Oleana thought as she gulped, “She heard you, you idiot! This is why people say the walls have ears!”. 

She shoved Piers into the skinny arms of his mother.

“You can’t do this to us!” screamed Oleana so loud that she could hear it echo in her own ears.

”I took you in when you had nothing Oleana,” Dagmar growled, “And saying that your own safety is in jeopardy because you live with me is _far_ from the truth,”.

Piers had woken up and had begun to cry, he clung to Oleana’s nightshirt as he wailed away from the screaming and snapping.

“Now _look_ at what you’ve _done_!” snapped Aunt Dagmar, “Now get out of here before this evening otherwise I will be contacting authorities,”. Aunt Dagmar walked out the door before a few seconds later she popped her head back in, “And just so you know I can do this, _don’t test me_ _Oleana_ ,”.

She popped her head out of view again.

“I trusted you,” Oleana murmured in a defeated tone, “And you betrayed me,”.

But deep down, Oleana knew deep down her aunt could. She just didn’t want to believe it. But she had to because she was an adult with a child.

She pulled her son close and began to rub his back, he had been pulled from his slumber to find that he and his mother were about to be ripped from their home and had _nowhere_ to go.

It was just like the day he was born two years prior. She and him were about to be all alone all over again.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure out something, I promise,” whispered Oleana to her son, “I always do, I promised the moment I found out about you that I would give you the best life possible,” she hugged Piers a bit tired, “ _And Arceus be damned I will!_ ”.

And so from that moment on Oleana knew she could only rely on herself, she was the one who was going to make it, and make it no matter what. 

And so Oleana pulled herself out of bed and got everything packed up. And within four hours Oleana had packed everything she could into two suitcases in a backpack.

And with that Oleana left Aunt Dagmar’s home with Piers by her side and no clue what was going to happen to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whole italicized text shows the outside world breaking into Oleana and Piers’ subconscious


	4. And I Promise We’ll Be Okay

Oleana walked through the dingy apartment building hallway as she held a sleeping Piers in her arms. It smelled as awful as it looked and it made Oleana want to _gag_.

Arceus, how desperate was she to go to her of all people, very, that’s how.

She could hear muffled voices from the flowers above, the voices sounded angry as all hell and reminded her of the nights where she would fight with her parents until both sides were screaming wildly. 

But that had been years ago, now Oleana was grown with a child. And she dreaded the day she and Piers would fight like that, or if the fact they would fight like that as all.

Oleana stopped in front of one of the doors, it read 089 on it in faded gold plating. She gave a slow knock to the door, almost as if she were terrified it would jump out and bite her handoff.

“Coming!” came a muffled and tired voice from behind the door, then came the sounds of footfalls.

The door opened and Diane popped her head out of the doorway. She wore a faded oversized gray t-shirt and her black pixie cut a complete mess with the crimson streak stuck up like a cowlick. Dark circles underneath her eyes from the heavy drinking from the previous night and likely from lack of sleep from partying until dawn.

“Ollie?” Diane said in surprise, her obsidian eyes going as wide as saucers, “What are you doing here?” 

There was a pregnant pause, it was like the time Oleana had told Diane she was pregnant with Piers, long and completely and utterly uncomfortable for the both of them.

“Long story,” Oleana then paused, “May I come in?”.

Diane nodded and let her tall and blonde friend into her small apartment.

The apartment was surprisingly well kept for as dingy as the building it was housed in was. It certainly wasn’t completely spotless but it was better than Oleana had expected. 

There were no stains on any of the furniture but there were vinyl records in cases stacked up by the couch and in a milk crate beside the other stack. As to be expected for someone such as Diane to possess. Not surprising in the very least at all.

“Old Dag kick you out?” asked Diane as she shut and locked the door behind her friend and walked to her side.

“Yeah,” replied Oleana as she set down her two suitcases and her backpack, “I should have known it was going to happen soon,”.

“Then again, when you cause trouble and being in her good graces depends on if you talk bad about her and her ‘business’,” thought Oleana, “Don’t be cruel, you know it’s the only choice she has to make money,”.

“Well you’re welcome to stay for as long as you like,” said Diane, “Just keep in mind I have a concert later and will be out most of the night,”.

Diane dug through the pocket of her black sweatpants and there they stayed as the short woman looked upon her friend.

“Still doing gigs for extra cash?” asked Oleana as she sat down on the couch with Piers in her arms still asleep, maybe that sounded condescending but Oleana was too tired to know.

“I have a job you know, I work at the store,” said Diane in a sharp and defensive tone, “But yes, I still am doing gigs for some extra cash for stuff,”.

Oleana nodded, “I was just commenting on that fact not criticizing you,” said Oleana, and then she looked down at her sleeping son once again.

“Whatever, sorry, I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep lately,” sighed Diane, “You can sleep in the guest room,” said Diane, her tone still a bit sharp from before, “Just make sure the kiddo doesn’t get too into the music tonight, you know how you used to get when that happened,” Diane chuckled a little.

Then the mood turned serious. 

“Also don’t open the door when a knock comes,” said Diane before she paused and looked to the door, “Come and get me and I’ll open it, I don’t want whoever’s there to possibly hurt you or the kiddo,”. Then Diane started talking again, “If the knocking doesn’t stop and I’m not home then get something to protect yourself and go hide with Piers in the closet,”.

“Yes Di,” said Oleana as she looked at her friend.

A chill went down the mother’s spine, the thought of someone behind the door with a gun or other weapon who could shoot or kill her or Piers.

“Good, I don’t want you or the kiddo hurt,” said Diane as she left the room, Oleana could hear her friend light up a cigarette from out of view.

  
  


“Well, it’s not exactly _ideal_ ,” Oleana whispered to her son, “But we have a place to stay now,”.

* * *

“ _Bede!” Marnie cried, “It took you long enough!”._

_A thunderous rumble was heard from above._

_Then the world returned to the void. Marnie’s voice once again an echo._

_“Run” was the echo from Bede’s voice._

* * *

Night had fallen and Oleana sat on the bed alongside Piers as she ran her delicate fingers through his hair as he reached for the pillow on the bed.

“Soft, mummy!” said Piers as he turned his head to his mother, his glittering eyes wide with joy.

“Yes pumpkin soft,” said Oleana as she smiled down at her son softly.

Then from outside the window came the loud strum of a guitar, the concert Diane was in appeared it was going to start soon.

Piers' eyes went wider, “Music mummy!” said Piers as he pointed his tiny finger toward the window where the guitar strum had come from.

“Yes pumpkin music,” said Oleana with a smile, “Auntie Diane is having a concert tonight,”.

Then came the loud beat of the drums from outside and Piers developed a bright smile on his tiny face. 

It reminded her of when he first began to smile. It was like a fire when he learned how he almost never ever stopped smiling except when he would cry or get frustrated. That was one thing Oleana missed about Piers being a baby, everything felt so much less complicated back then than it did right now. After all, it wouldn’t be long before Piers would be a teenager and everything would get even more complicated than it was now. She dreaded him becoming a teenager with all her heart because then he might fall into the same habits she once had during her teenage years.

Oleana picked up her son and went to the window. She quickly sat down on the chest under the window with Piers in her arms as she opened up the window and the sounds of the instruments floated through the windowsill to the mother and son.

The bandmates on stage were clad in leather and studs as they tooned up their instruments as they waited for Diane to come up on stage.

Piers watched with bandmates getting ready with wide and ready eyes, his two-year-old self had never seen anything like it before in his life. It was a brand new force in the young boy’s world. And it appeared he already loved it

A few minutes passed and Oleana continued to stare out the window as cheers from the court below her grew louder.

Diane appeared, a pink lightning bolt painted across her face, skin shimmering like she was an ethereal goddess from legend. Her dress of shredded black tulle bounced as it hit her knee-high leather boots. Her black and crimson hair was spiked up on all directions and sides.

The crowd cheered like a pack of wild Pokémon, as Diane made her way to the center of the aging stage.

As soon as the loud, sharp punk music began a loud and primal roar of a voice came out of Diane. But some part of it was undeniably beautiful.

The voice of Diane flowed out over the court as the lights turned burgundy. It felt like she was watching a music video, but a live one.

Oleana looked down at Piers as he waved his tiny arms around as the music reached their window, he bounced in his mother’s lap, a shining smile on his small face. Oleana couldn’t help but smile as she saw her son so bright, shiny, and happy. 

The happy little boy looked up at his mother, “I wanna make music like Aunty Diane does one day,”, then he started to wave his arms around as the primal punk music continued to play as the mother and son continued to watch Diane.

The music continued to play over the chant of the crowd.

As the song went on an instrument solo Diane began to bounce around the stage as she climbed up on the speakers as she began to shout the lyrics once again in an entrancing pattern.

It felt strange that someone as petite as Diane could have such a massive stage presence as a world-famous rockstar.

Then came the final note of the song as it faded out as the crowd cheered once more at Diane and her bandmates.

“This next song goes out to someone very important in my life,” Diane shouted, “To Ollie Iskra, my best girl, and her baby boy Piers!”.

Oleana felt her heart swell in her chest, that statement alone had left her completely breathless.

“That’s us mummy!” squeaked Piers in his tiny voice happily as he continued to bounce in his mother’s lap.

The next song began to play, a brassy punk song with equally as loud vocals as the first.

Diane continued to bounce around the stage as she continued to belt out the lyrics to the song, climbing on speakers and hanging off them, sweat glistened on her skin under the burgundy lights which lit up the stage.

Oleana and Piers watched the concert until Piers fell asleep in her skinny arms. At which point Oleana closed the window and went to bed herself. The punk music fading away as she fell into a deep slumber with her son at her side in the bed.

* * *

_A crashing roar came out of the unending void, she could hear the ear-splitting crack of the stone. This was it. They were going to die._

* * *

The next morning Oleana sat in the living room of Diane’s apartment as Diane made breakfast. The scent of eggs and pepper floated in from the kitchen area that was connected to the living room.

Diane handed Oleana a small poster as she walked over to her friend.

It was of a man in a black suit with black hair, brown skin, and green eyes. He held an ultra ball in one of his hands as he smiled at the camera.

“Who’s this?” asked Oleana as she furrowed her brow as she took the poster from her friend’s hands, “He looks quite handsome, hot even,”.

“Handsome,” Piers echoed his mother as he looked at the poster as he ate a piece of banana.

Diane snorted, “His name is Rose Joshi. He’s working his way up in an energy company, he’s twenty-three. Don’t get your hopes up though, he has a wife and kids,”.

“I’m not interested in being a homewrecker,” said Oleana as she ate a few of her eggs looking down at the poster again, the man’s smile undying.

Oleana gave her friend a quick side-eye as Diane chuckled again as she set the plate with eggs on the coffee table, “My Arceus, how many?”.

“Three, two baby twin boys and a toddler girl,” Diane paused as she swallowed her eggs, “His wife is beautiful, I’ve seen her on TV with him. She’s studying to become an astronomer or something to do with space shit,”. 

“Sounds successful to me,” said Oleana as she finished her eggs as Piers looked up at his mother and smiled.

“Well you’re gonna be every bit as successful as this Rose Joshi guy,” said Diane as she collected the plates, “Scratch that, more successful than him,”.

Oleana looked down at the poster again as she pulled Piers close to her body, “I’ll be every bit as successful as him, just you wait,” she told her son.

  
  
  
  



	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic will continue to get darker from here on out. I.e. Piers will begin to show symptoms of depression and we will begin to see more of the shady business around Spikemuth, etc.

It was a Summer day, Piers was six years old, and he had just met his beloved zigzagoon.

Diane had become Spikemuth’s bug type gym leader and Oleana a promotion in her job which meant the two friends could now afford a house together. They had moved in the previous month.

Well not _exactly_ a house, they were renting out the top floor of the house of the couple who lived on the first floor.

Zigzagoon (when Piers had found him) had matted fur, was scrawny, and dirty too. _Filthy_ in fact, if Oleana hadn’t been busy on a phone call for work then she would have absolutely refused to let Piers bring him into the house, _much less_ try to clean him up and make him his friend. 

Piers had never been sure of _why_ his mother had told him not to leave the house unless she knew about it either. He had assumed his mum was just being silly.

But the day Piers met his Zigzagoon it was a _miserably_ hot, sticky, and arid June day. All the windows on the top floor of the house were open to let in the fresh air, and Piers sat in his bedroom as he tried his hand (his voice) at singing a song he had heard on the radio.

“If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman?” Piers sang in the best voice his six-year-old voice could produce, which if anyone were to have overheard would have admitted it was quite good.

After Piers finished the lyric he heard a sound that resembled a whimper, but whatever it was it sounded _completely_ ticked off.

Piers went over to the window, hoisted himself up, and looked down below at what had made it. A small Zigzagoon in the thorny bushes below. 

It had filthy, matted fur was scrawny down to the bone, and appeared to have a belly full of wurmple. It was an absolutely ugly little creature, probably completely feral too, not that a little boy like Piers would care about that. As most children do, Piers loved gross things.

Piers raced out of his room and out to the front of the house (careful to avoid the landlord and lady Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur) and there lay Zigzagoon tangled in the front bushes. The sharp thorns didn’t appear to have caused anyone damage, just seemed to have made Zigzagoon stuck.

Piers pulled apart the thorns so the Zigzagoon could come free, and as soon as it was, the Zigzagoon jumped onto Piers’ scrawny little legs. His claws razor-sharp, and he released a sharp hiss.

Then his hot pink eyes looked into Piers’ seafoam eyes, and his expression softened up and it stuck its tongue out at the young boy.

“Hullo! Let’s be friends,” chirped Piers as he took the Zigzagoon into the house, “First a bath for you!”.

Piers quickly made his way up to the bathroom with Zigzagoon in his arms. He flicked on the light in the bathroom and set the emaciated Zigzagoon down on the rug in the bathroom. 

Piers went to the hall closet and picked out a towel, it was his “Obsy And The Rockers” one, which was a bit ratty due to how much use it saw. But Piers wanted to impress his new Zigzagoon, so the Obsy towel was the best pick.

Piers raced back to the bathroom to find Zigzagoon trying to climb up the sink.

Piers went over to where Zigzagoon was trying to climb.

“ _No_! Mummy will get mad if she sees the wood scratched up! And if she gets mad she won’t let me keep you!” Piers squeaked in his little kid's voice as he pulled Zigzagoon off the sink, “Please be good, I want you to be happy buddy, and I want a friend,”.

The Zigzagoon complied with the wishes of the young boy, letting him remove him from the sink entirely and returning to the arms of the young Piers. Even Zigzagoon itself wondered where the little boys’ mum was. So something stuck out to the Zigzagoon there.

Piers began to run the bathwater and pour in bubble bath for the Zigzagoon.

“It smells like strawberries, and I _love_ strawberries!” said Piers as he poured in a boatload of the bubble bath and began to swish his arms around to make a mountain of bubbles appear.

Zigzagoon just stared at the boy, unsure what to make of his enthusiasm towards life. He was young, _happy_ , shiny, cute, and _smiley_ which was in stark contrast to his appearance which made him look like a sullen little guy.

Then after a few minutes, Piers turned off the water and held Zigzagoon in the water to make sure he didn’t drown at all. And began to wash his new Pokémon thoroughly so much so that the water turned a light brownish-green color so that it looked like a swamp.

“Zigzagoon you’re doing amazing! I’m making you look as pretty as my mummy’s Pokémon!” exclaimed Piers as he lifted the striped Pokémon from the bathtub, which caused the Pokémon to wiggly a little, “C’mon little dude let’s get you dried and brushed!” said Piers as he began to let out the water, “Then we can share the sandwich mummy made me for lunch!”.

He wrapped the bony Pokémon in the towel and began to dry it like he had seen Oleana do with her Trubbish. But Zigzagoon due to being furry was a bit different than drying a poison type like Trubbish.

It was a struggle to get the rodent Pokémon dried and brushed as it moved around at near-constant. He couldn’t have been more than a month or two old, no, he was probably recently ran off by his mother as he had become too much for his mother to bear.

Piers could hear the muffled voice of Oleana from down the hall.

“Yes, I understand sir,” Piers then heard the phone click into the holder on the wall and from the sounds of it, it seems Oleana was nearing the bathroom.

Piers felt his body tense up and a chill go throughout it as the footsteps of his mother grew closer to the bathroom. Zigzagoon shot free from Piers’ grasp and shot out into the hallway. Piers fell forward and tried to dart out after him.

“ _Piers_!” came Oleana’s loud and lightly angered voice, a split second later Oleana appeared in the doorway holding a wiggling Zigzagoon by the fur on his neck, “Mind explaining where this came from?”. Oleana placed a hand on her slender hip as she stared down at her son.

  
  


Piers looked down at the rug in the bathroom and murmured, “The bush outside,”.

Oleana knelt down in front of her son, the Zigzagoon still in hand, “Where?”.

“The bush outside,” Piers repeated, this time a bit louder than before, “He was stuck in the thorns!”.

Piers looked up at her mother, her long blonde hair fell forward brushing his knees and a stern expression on her face, “You know you’re not supposed to go outside unless you tell me,”.

Piers nodded, a weight of shame at his mother’s disappointment in his actions in his tiny chest.

“I can tell you care about Zigzagoon quite a lot, you can keep them if you promise to take care of them,” said Oleana as she handed Zigzagoon over to her son.

“I’ll take care of them mummy I promise!” said Piers in a chirpy voice.

The Zigzagoon began to make happy noises as he was handed over to the small boy.

Piers looked up at the Zigzagoon as he smiled at him with a toothy grin which caused the young boy to giggle.

Piers saw his mother smile as the Zigzagoon curled up right next to his body, “I think he likes me!”.

Oleana nodded silently with a smile at her son, “Come along Piers, we have somewhere to go,”.

“Where are we going, Mummy?” Piers looked up at his mother with curious eyes as he took her hand, Zigzagoon still in his arms.

Oleana stood and left the bathroom as she gently held her son’s hand, “You’ll see pumpkin,”.

* * *

“ _Gordie? Gordie!” Piers wanted to scream into the void, “Are you alright? Where are you!”._

_“Piers!” It was Gordie, then there was a terrified gasp from him, he’d likely found his boyfriend’s blood-covered body, “Dear Arceus!”._

_“Please, I’m going to be fine, I promise,” Piers wanted to say, he couldn’t see Gordie, the void suffocated his frail body, “I promise!”._

_“I promise,”._

* * *

It wasn’t long before Oleana and Piers reached the court at the end of the city. Well, it wasn’t technically a court, it was the city gym, though it was mostly just a concrete battle court with a painted on-field (and a fading paint job at that). At the end of the battle court sat a stage under a neon bug type sign shining yellow-green.

There was a shabby throne on the stage and on it sat Diane, bridal style, as she tuned her guitar in her bug type gym leader uniform. (Well how she had chosen to style her uniform at least). Two Poochyenas rested at the base of the throne, presumably having sweet dreams.

“Diane!” Oleana called from the opening of the court at her best friend.

“Auntie Diane!” Piers echoed his mother loudly.

Diane’s head snapped up and she set her guitar on the side of her throne, “Welcome!”, she said as she rose from the throne.

Diane wore the bug type leader gym top with a black leather skirt which had slender yellow-green metal chains attached to it, ripped up yellow-green fishnets, and black platform boots decked out in spikes.

Diane descended the steps to her friend and friend’s son.

“What brings you two here today?” asked Diane with open arms she hugged her friend and kissed her on the cheek.

Piers looked at Diane blush as she kissed Oleana, Piers then wondered if Diane liked men, non-binary people, and women like mummy did or if Diane only liked women.

“I found a Zigzagoon!” chirped Piers as he raised Zigzagoon up so Diane could get a better look.

Diane knelt down to the height of the boy, “My, my what a cutie you have there Piers,”.

Piers smiled proudly, “I found him in the bushes! Mummy says if I take really good care of them I can keep them!”

“How wonderful!” Diane exclaimed as she clapped her hands then she looked over Piers’ shoulder, “And just in time too!”.

“What do you mean?” Piers looked at Diane with a puzzled look on his face.

Diane giggled, “Melony! How lovely it is to see you!”.

Piers and Oleana turned to see a voluptuous and lovely young woman and a plump boy about Piers’ age with blonde hair and a sweet round face.

Piers looked to his mother and saw a twinge of jealousy on her face as she looked at the mystery woman, envying the other woman’s body.

“Diane, we have an exhibition match today, did you forget?” Melony sighed, “Also I couldn’t find a babysitter so I brought Gordie along, Nishi should be right behind me,”.

A short and pretty woman with brown skin and black hair poked her head out from behind Melony and then the rest of her. This had to be Nishi and the second she saw Piers she developed a smile on her face.

“Diane! I didn’t know you had a son!” Nishi said sweetly as she knelt down in front of Piers, “Hullo, little one what is your name?”.

“Actually,” Oleana said, “He’s my son and his name is Piers,”.

Nishi’s head snapped up to look at Oleana, “You must Be Oleana! Diane told me so much about you the last time we talked!”.

Oleana nodded, “Nishi Joshi right? You’re that executive’s wife, and an astronomer correct?”.

“Oh yes! I’m so glad you mentioned my work, you’re one of the few people who have! And yes, I am the wife of Rose Joshi, and the mother of three beautiful children, who are about the age of this little guy,” Nishi said as she turned her head to Piers and ruffled his hair causing the young boy to giggle.

Piers held up Zigzagoon who stuck his tongue out at Nishi like Zigzagoons normally do all the time and Nishi proceeded to laugh, “You remind me so much of my daughter!”.

Piers smiled up at the woman and she smiled back the same way his mother would when she saw him after she came home from work.

Melony then cleared her throat, “I’m sorry to interrupt this precious moment, but we have a battle, Diane,”.

Diane clapped her hands, “Oh _yes_!”.

Piers then rushed over to the plump young boy.

“I’m Piers! What’s your name?” Piers smiled, which revealed that one of his front teeth was missing.

The boy didn’t look up from the ground, “It’s Gordie,” he murmured.

“Gordie, do you wanna play with Piers while mummy has her gym battle?” Melony asked her young son in a sweet tone.

Gordie didn’t answer but instead went over to Piers.

“ _Hi_ ,” he said shyly.

The two boys walked over and sat down in the stands alongside Nishi and Oleana. Piers held Zigzagoon tight to his body as he sat down beside Gordie. 

As each of the respective gym leaders sent out their first Pokémon Gordie whispered to Piers, “I don’t like watching mummy battle. Would you rather play instead?”.

Piers smiled and nodded his head yes as the boys ran down to the bottom of the bleachers near where a group of five kids sat. All of them had black or blonde hair and brown or green eyes. In a row from oldest to youngest, the oldest looking about fifteen and the youngest the age of Gordie and Piers.

The youngest was a girl who had her ebony black hair in pigtails, brown eyes, pale skin and wore a black overall dress with a purple t-shirt underneath it.

“Hi!” said Piers to the little girl as he set Zigzagoon down on the ground, “I’m Piers and this is my friend Gordie! What’s your name?”.

The little girl turned to face them, her voice was slow and nearly unemotional, “Lina, _what_ do you _want_?”.

“We’re here to play,” Gordie said in a tiny voice as he stared down at the concrete ground.

“Play _what_ exactly? There’s a gym battle going on,” asked Lina in a snarky tone, “Can’t you two just sit down and _watch_?”.

Lina crossed her tiny arms over her chest as she impatiently waited for the two boys to respond to her question. She seemed annoyed already with the two boys, but having only just met them.

Piers lifted up his Zigzagoon into view of Lina, “Play with my Zigzagoon of course! He’s really nice,”.

“He looks too _skinny_ ,” Lina shot back.

“I found him in the bushes,” explained Piers, “Do you wanna play or not?”.

Lina sat down on the concrete with the two boys.

The Pokémon battle between Melony and Diane raged on, not that the three children cared as they were far more interested in Piers’ newly acquired Zigzagoon. Lina pet the Zigzagoon as the two boys tried to find a stick for Zigzagoon to play with.

“Are they all your siblings?” Gordie asked Lina as he motioned to the four other children on the bleachers.

“Yeah, all my other ones are grown up,” said Lina as Piers waves the stick in front of Zigzagoon’s face.

Zigzagoon bit the stick that Piers held. The Zigzagoon appeared to have a smile on his tiny face with its tongue hanging out of its mouth.

“I hope mummy doesn’t have any more babies, I don’t want brothers or sisters,” said Gordie, “I want mummy all to myself,”.

All three children continued to pay no attention to the battle (Melony was winning, but Diane didn’t falter), much rather interested in the Zigzagoon Piers had found in the thorn bush that morning.

It was strange how children could find something so simple and mundane so intriguing. Perhaps that was part of the beautiful mystery that is childhood. The beauty of the world untainted in the eyes of the three children, they did not yet know what lay ahead one, two, three, even twenty years into the future or what their lives would be like then. Maybe them not knowing what was ahead was for the best. Maybe Oleana, Diane, Melony, and Nishi not knowing what was to come was for the best too. Maybe it’s for the best that no one knows what’s to come.

But for the right then and there the beauty of the world still laid untainted for the three children. The strange thing about children was that even in a place as dingy and run down as Spikemuth they were able to find beauty in it. Maybe that was the beauty of childhood one loses as one grows and the world’s beauty and goodness are clouded by all the world’s faults and obscenities. Before ones’ pessimism makes one think of the world as ugly, maybe that is why grown-ups tell children to never grow up too fast. Maybe it is so that children can enjoy the beauty of the world for as long as they possibly can.

“Lina we have to go otherwise mama will get pissed at us,” said the oldest of Lina’s four present siblings, “Besides the battle just ended,”.

“ _Fine_ Alicia,” grumbled Lina as she rose from her place on the concrete, “Bye Gordie and Piers,”.

The two boys waved goodbye to the little girl in the black overall dress.

“Do you want to be my friend?” Gordie asked as his voice went tiny again, his shyness already returning after Lina had left.

“Sure!” Piers said as he hugged the plump boy and Zigzagoon ran around Gordie’s ankles as if to comfort the young boy which caused Gordie to giggle.

“I wanna be your friend forever,”.

* * *

_Oleana_ _heard the cries of Diane from the void, “Ollie! Oh, sweet Arceus!”._

_“What are you idiots doing?” Oleana shouted into the void despite knowing no one would or could even hear her, “Get out of here! You’ll be crushed to death! Get out of here you idiots, save yourselves, it’s too late for me! Save yourselves!”._

* * *


	6. I’ll make the world safe and sound (for you)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did use a hc pokemonswshbutionlyplayedsword made using my story. And I will continue to use some of their hcs for this AU going forward. So huge thanks to them and go check them out on tumblr because they are amazing!
> 
> Also feel free to draw any of the scenes from any of my fics, send them to me on my Instagram Peculiarpancakes or tag me in the picture!
> 
> Chapter title taken from Dear Theodosia from Hamilton

It was a late summer day and Piers was ten years old. He, Gordie, and Lina were walking around Route Nine around the beach by Spikemuth.

Lina and Gordie accompanied the tall and bony boy. 

Lina was now a tall and scrawny girl who wore a black band t-shirt, distressed black jean shorts that had some holes in the front, black flip flops that were far too big for her, and a camera she had found (likely in the trash along with her too-big flip flops) around her neck. Her hair was long, black, and wavy. She tapped her skinny fingers on the camera as the trio walked down the beach.

Gordie was a tall, plump, and handsome boy. His blonde hair with yellow tips was now down to his neck when not in a ponytail like it currently was. 

In the four years since the trio had met much had changed for them. For Piers, he and Oleana had moved out of the top floor of the house where they were living and now the mother and son lived in a tiny apartment where Piers had to sleep on the couch while Oleana slept on a blanket on the floor. The mother and son had moved four times in the last four years and Oleana had entered night school in order to try to advance in her job and so Piers was left at home alone most of the evenings and nights of the week. They no longer lived with Diane either, the mother and son duo now living on their own.

Lina now lived with her mother and her remaining three older siblings in a tiny apartment while her mum worked two jobs and her oldest remaining sibling at home worked to support the family as well. Lina oftentimes would wander out to the outer Spikemuth part of Route Nine to play outside of town. Piers had begun to think that Lina was trying to build a fantasy land where she could escape her life and all the trouble that came with it.

Gordie on the other hand was already training to take over his mother’s position when the time came for him to be Circhester’s next gym leader. His mother had given him a Snom to train, but Gordie had secretly caught a Rolycoly to train in secret as well.

The three ten-year-olds walked down the beach. The wind blowing Lina’s long hair as she walked alongside the two boys.

“All I’m saying is I think I want to be a rock type trainer more than an ice type trainer,” said Gordie, “I’m just worried about telling my mum. Especially since everyone in the family has always been ice type trainers,”.

Lina pierced her lips into a thin line, “I don’t think it should be that big of a deal. After all, it’s just a difference of Pokémon types, it shouldn’t be such a big deal as people make it out to be,” Lina then quickly snapped a picture of the ocean hitting the rocks.

Gordie looked at the scrawny girl with a slight frown, “It shouldn’t and you’re right. But here’s the thing, the title of the Circhester gym leader has always been held by my family, it’s been passed down generation to generation like many gym leaders positions. You know the Spikemuth gym leader Diane?”.

Lina nodded as she lowered her camera, her expression one of deep thought, “Yeah, the gym leader before her was her uncle,”.

“Right. The gym leader position is commonly hereditary, usually passed down by a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle to their child, grandchild, niece, or nephew. So in other words I was destined to be Circhester’s gym leader before I was born. Unless mum has another baby,” Gordie explained as his weighted expression returned.

Lina nodded again, “I think I get what you mean now. But that’s a lot of pressure for a ten-year-old,”.

  
  


Piers finally spoke up, “Too much pressure if you ask me. Especially for a ten-year-old,”.

Piers was certainly correct in his feelings about the situation for children are not meant to be forced down a path from the moment they were born with everyone telling them who and what to be without a single thought towards what they want in life. It’s cruel to think that children have no desires of who and what they want to be in life, to think that they will be fine with what their parents and elders desire for them and thus make them train for their entire lives.

Then a rumble shook the ground. The sand shook like it was on a slope and going to tumble into the ocean. It knocked the three children to the ground.

“Look!” shouted Lina, her eyes wide as she pointed up at the cliff in which a large Pokémon was beginning to grow out of the beam of magenta light. Its tail was electric pink and sharp and jagged. The monstrous sized Pokémon then emitted a loud roar that shook the whole ground.

“Run!” shouted Gordie.

* * *

_Gordie’s voice shouted, “We have to save them! They’re doomed otherwise!”._

_“You idiots!” Piers wanted to scream, “Get out of here yourselves!”._

_Bea then spoke up, “Go Machamp!”._

_Machamp’s cry was then heard._

_“Machamp we need you to lift that stone over there!” Bea said, “Don’t worry Miss Oleana and Piers! Help is on the way!”._

* * *

Oleana froze as a new power spot opened up in the map and a Gigantamax Toxtricity appeared on the screen beside the electric blue dot which was located in outer Spikemuth by the beach.

“Sir! A new power spot appeared on the map,” Oleana told her superior.

It took only a split second for a horrifying thought entered her head, “Piers and the others are at the beach! Oh, Arceus!”.

“Now is not the time for jokes Miss Iskra,” her superior then paused, “When did that power spot open?”. He looked down at his clipboard before his eyes shot back up to the screen.

“Mere seconds ago Sir,” explained Oleana.

Oleana’s heart slammed against her ribs and a sour taste in her mouth, sweat was beginning to form on her forehead. Fear gripped the inside of her mind like a horror movie. She desperately wanted to run out the door and to where her son and his friends were at and protect them.

But all she could do at that moment was hope with all her heart that they were okay and would be okay.

“Get a read on its stats pronto!” Her superior said as he turned around

“Arceus, _please_ , _please_. I’m _begging_ you _please_ keep them safe,” Oleana prayed her silent prayer.

* * *

_Sirens of an ambulance blared off in the distance._

_Help was coming, but would it get there in time?_

* * *

Piers, Gordie, and Lina raced up to the opening of Spikemuth. Terror carried the three children towards the opening of the town.

“We need to get Diane!” Gordie shouted over the roars of Toxtricity, “She’s the strongest trainer in Spikemuth!”.

Lina and Gordie made it inside, but Piers had been reckless, he turned his head to look at the Gigantamax Toxtricity and tripped over a stone in the pathway which caused him to slam against the ground

He turned his head to the Toxtricity as it released another roar. It sounded as though it were in pain like it was as though it was a cry for help.

“You’re scared, I can see that now,” Piers thought as though it could reach the rampaging Pokémon, “You’re in pain, don’t worry, Diane will be here soon,”.

Then the world went black.

* * *

_“Blood pressure is ninety for the female and ninety-three for the male,” Oleana heard an EMT say as she felt her body being moved onto a stretcher._

_“Bleeding appears to have stopped for both,” said another EMT._

_“Are my mum and brother gonna be okay?” Oleana heard Marnie’s choked voice say._

_Her heart all but broke imagining the tears streaming down her baby girls’ face, the hiccuped sobs beginning to ring in her ears._

_The EMT replied in a grim voice, “It isn’t looking good, but there is still hope,”._

_She heard her daughter’s sobs grow louder in the pitch-black void._

_“Mummy’s here,” Oleana wanted to say, “Mummy’s here Mars, dry your tears, everything will be okay,”._

* * *

Oleana sat by her son’s bed in Hammerlocke Memorial Hospital. The beep of the heart rate monitor breaking the still silence of the hospital room.

Piers had seven fractured ribs and his entire left leg had five different fractures from the top down to his ankle.

The Toxtricity had been subdued by Diane but not before injuring Piers after her son had fainted.

She ran her fingers through her son’s black and white locks, his seafoam eyes still shut, however.

Professor Mohn had left to return to the Alola region just before the new power spot had appeared, he told them he had a pregnant wife and she was now due any day. The day Oleana was offered (and accepted) a job as a researcher of Dynamax and Gigantamax at Macro Cosmos. The day had been so happy and now at its end, Oleana sat by the bedside of her unconscious son, having been unable to protect him and absolutely cried dry.

Her baby boy was all laid up in a hospital bed, she couldn’t bring herself to leave his side, not even for a little bit.

The smell of the hospital room was stale and smelled of rubbing alcohol as Oleana looked down on the pallid face of her son with dark circles encasing his beautiful eyes. Hopefully, his eyes would open soon and she would get to see his beautiful eyes that she adored so much.

The doctor said that Piers would be healed up in about two months. But during that time he would need a lot of rest and to be off his feet as much as possible. So it had been decided that the mother and son would stay with Diane’s aunt and uncle in Hammerlocke.

“It’s going to be nice to sleep in a bed again,” thought Oleana, “Especially for Piers, he gets awfully sore sleeping on the couch sometimes,”.

Piers’ chest rose and fell in a rhythmic motion to the beep of the heart rate monitor. 

She reached into her lab coat and pulled out a Pokeball, it has a small sticker with the dark type symbol on it. She gently pressed the button and Piers’ Zigzagoon popped into her lap.

Zigzagoon after four years in Piers’ care had become a healthy weight and was no longer scrawny and unhealthy.

Zigzagoon looked up at the woman and got a concerned expression as soon as he laid his sight on her red, puffy eyes.

“Piers needs us right now, he’s had a very bad accident and is very hurt right now,” Oleana said as her voice shook, “I’m not sure when he’s gonna wake up, but I think he’d like to cuddle with you,”.

Oleana set Zigzagoon down beside Piers arm and the small raccoon Pokémon snuggled the scrawny arm of his trainer and shut his eyes tightly as he began to give light snoring sounds as he slept beside its trainer. It was quite a sweet sight to behold.

Oleana laid her lab coat over her son, it still had some of her cheap floral perfume still attached to it. Perhaps it would provide the boy comfort in the sterile hospital environment.

Oleana continued to watch over her son with a motherly gaze, she had tried to distract herself with magazines which told the news and scandals of socialites and big stars. But she quickly found them boring and absolutely putrid, something her elder sister would have found interesting. She had tried to find a science magazine in the stack with no luck.

She once again turned her head to her son and brushed his hair out of his eyes, “I will find a way to make sure what happened to you today never happens again. I don’t care what I have to _do_ , or how _long_ I have to _work_ , I will find a way to get the Dynamax band completed and make sure something like this _never_ happens again,”.

  
  



	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay first of all I would like to thank my friends Arryn, Ashy, and Florafionpetals for helping me with this chapter! It’s changed a lot from its original draft but they helped me through it all!  
> Second of all I’m sorry this took so long to get out. It’s just it’s really been rough and I’ve honestly been considering abandoning this fic for about a week or two. I will end up continuing it definitely because I want to finish it. But still having low self-esteem about my writing sometimes, for lack of a better word, really sucks.  
> Also another reason I’ve been missing for so long is because I had to do some research for Marnie, because I want to make sure I’m writing her accurately especially since she is a trans girl in this and in Ultra SWSH. And during this time I’ve been reaching out to writing blogs run by trans and non-binary people and my trans and non-binary friends and asking them questions, And getting advice from them, and doing research on my own about how to portray trans characters and a bunch of other things too. And if I have any trans and/or non-binary readers please leave some advice for me if you have some! It will be much appreciated!  
> I’ve also been doing research on how to portray non-binary characters as well as Avery is non-binary in Ultra SWSH (they/them pronouns) and Bede is Agender (with he/him pronouns), and Victor and Leon are also trans as well in Ultra SWSH. So I’ve been doing a lot of research For all of them.
> 
> I promise the next update will be out much sooner. Hopefully I’ll be in better spirits then.  
> Also as always if you want to make fanart of any scene in any story of mine feel free to. Just send it to me at my Instagram Peculiarpancakes or link me on the picture.  
> Any way, again, sorry for the long wait and here’s the chapter.
> 
> Also sidenote: This is the first chapter I wrote in a long time to music. Given most of it was Jesus Of Suburbia by Green Day, You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen, the Kids From Yesterday by My Chemical Romance, and Boys by Lizzo but still. It’s a worthy note to make.
> 
> But the reason I bring this up is because now I can’t stop associating Piers with Jesus of Suburbia.

Piers woke up in his bed a month before his eleventh birthday. The tall and angular boy stared up at the ceiling as he waited for his mother to wake up. 

The mother and son duo had once again moved since Piers’ accident the year before (thanks to Oleana’s job at Macro Cosmos of course) this time into a slightly bigger apartment. For which Piers was thankful, at least now he didn’t have to worry about waking up sore due to sleeping on the couch. Now he had his own room and his mother had her own room (which he was also grateful for, as Oleana now didn’t have to sleep on the floor).

Five minutes passed and his mum _still_ hadn’t come to wake him up. So Piers kicked off the skull print covers of his bed and got dressed for the day. His bedroom was tiny and cramped with royal blue carpet on the floor.

Piers got dressed. His outfit was a simple one of his choker, a dark gray t-shirt, a faux black leather jacket (Oleana _hated_ using real leather as she thought the practice of getting it was inhumane), black ripped up skinny jeans, and beat-up black sneakers.

After he got dressed and combed his hair he headed out to the kitchen for some breakfast with his backpack slung over his shoulder.

He flicked on the lights in the kitchen and jumped a little when he saw what the light revealed. A slumped over Oleana on top of her Dynamax band designs, a cup of coffee by her side. It seemed she had stayed up late working again, causing her to pass out over her notes.

Piers let out a small “ _tsk-tsk_ ” as he saw the scene. He walked across the linoleum floors that squeaked under the step of his shoes as he went over to Oleana.

“Mum, _Mum_ ,” he said in a soft voice as he lightly nudged his mother, “ _It’s morning, time to get up_ ,”.

He felt a parent doing this to his mother, but he guessed sometimes parents could sometimes use a bit of _parenting_ for _themselves_. 

“ _Uhm_?” came Oleana’s confused and exhausted sigh as she was roused from her sleep before she yawned, “ _What time is it_?”

Piers looked up at the clock on the eggshell-colored walls of the kitchen, “Six forty-five Mum. You must’ve fallen asleep doing your work last night,”.

Oleana gave her son a half-hearted smile as her long blonde bangs dusted the top of her thick black glasses, “Well thank _Arceus_ it’s my day off!”.

“ _Day off_?” Piers’ voice was incredulous as he stepped back from his mother, “Why would someone like you take a day off?”.

Oleana chuckled lightly as she looked down at her designs for the Dynamax band then back up at her son, “I see Diane is rubbing off on you. Well, what’s tonight? Did you forget?”.

Shit, he did forget. He had been so busy with school he forgot entirely about tonight and why his mother was taking the day off.

“Y-yes?” Piers said timidly as one of his eyebrows went up, “Sorry it’s just I’ve been so busy with school,”.

Oleana stood up from the white kitchen chair and stretched her long, skinny limbs, “It’s alright pumpkin, Diane’s concert is tonight and since it’s on a Friday and she’s been a big inspiration to you. So as an early birthday present I thought we could go together,”.

Piers nodded as he remembered, “Right, right. Don’t push yourself too hard today mum, you need to be shipshape in time for Monday,” the boy quickly put some bread in the toaster.

“I know pumpkin, you don’t need to remind me,” Oleana said as she lightly ruffled her sons’ hair, “Though it will be a bit hard to stray from working since I do it _nearly_ every day,”.

Piers plucked the toast from the toaster after it had popped up, “You know I’m beginning to see why Aunt Diane calls work-obsessed mum. You work even on your day off,”.

“That’s just how I am pumpkin, there’s no changing it,” Oleana gave her son a small smile as he took a bit of his toast, “Besides, I need to work hard so that my design for the Dynamax band is completed. I’ve been working on it since you were a baby. Remember this Piers, continue on even when things seem hopeless,”.

“Why?” asked Piers as he swallowed a piece of toast, “Is that one of Aunt Diane’s mantras?”.

Oleana took a step forward as she dunked last nights’ coffee into the kitchen sink, “Yes, but still, it’s good to remember. If everyone gave up when things seemed hopeless do you think Spikemuth would still be here?”.

Piers shook his head. The city was the poorest in Galar, everyone said anyone trying to help Spikemuth was fighting a lost cause. But that didn’t stop people from fighting if anything it made them fight harder.

“Right, Spikemuth is still here because people like Diane, Scorch, me, and others keep fighting. And soon it will be your turn to start fighting,” said Oleana as she patted her sons’ shoulder, “Even if Spikemuth eventually becomes abandoned the ones who kept fighting will know Spikemuth didn’t go down without a fight,”.

Piers shuddered a bit, the thought of Spikemuth one day becoming abandoned scared him, the city itself becoming a _ghost_. The tales of its inhabitants, _gone_ and _forgotten_ to time, _never_ to return again. It slowly _crumbling_ to dust until one day no one would even know where the city had once stood let alone that Spikemuth had _existed_ at all. But what scared him more, the possibility of all the fighting being for nothing, to in the end still have the city snatched from their fingertips. A losing battle maybe but it would still hurt to lose Spikemuth nonetheless, no matter how bad the city seemed to be to outsiders it was still home to those who lived there no matter what.

“Hurry up pumpkin, you don’t wanna be late for school, do you? Also, your toast is getting cold,” Oleana said which broke him out of his thoughts.

“Of course mum,” said Piers as he wolfed down the rest of his toast like a Houndoom, “I got a bit sidetracked there, sorry,”.

Piers then rushed out of the kitchen to finish getting ready. Which was to just brush his teeth and pack his lunch so it wasn’t much that he needed to do to finish getting ready.

“Have a good day at school pumpkin,” Oleana said as she gave her son a hug, “Come straight home after school so we can get ready for the concert,”.

“I’ll be sure to,” said Piers before he walked out the door and headed off to school.

* * *

_Oleana no longer heard the cries of Marnie or any other noise for that matter._

_The pitch-black void had become a place of still silence. No sound could be heard at all. Coldness radiated through the void if cold can even radiate at all._

_“Is this it?” Oleana thought to herself, “Is this how I die? Am I all alone?”._

* * *

Oleana sat in her bedroom as she nursed a cup of coffee, Piers had left for school fifteen minutes ago. So now she had the place all to herself until he got home that afternoon. She had just gotten out of the shower and gotten the coffee she was nursing as she looked at what to wear today.

It was mostly the clothes she had when she was eighteen (which consisted of fishnets, plaid shirts, and bottoms, ripped jeans, t-shirts, and faux leather) so her wardrobe certainly hadn’t changed much over the last eleven years. With the exception of some sweaters (mostly baggy and cozy), oversized t-shirts, athletic pants, and not ripped jeans.

She quickly pulled a pair of ripped black jeans, a black tank top, and a plaid button-up shirt out of the drawer. Her outfit for the day, or at least until the concert that night, then she would put on something a bit more appropriate for a Spikemuth punk.

After she finished getting dressed she continued to sip on her coffee, cross-legged on her bed. Perhaps she should enjoy the quiet, after all, who knew just how long it would last in a place like Spikemuth.

Oleana downed the rest of her coffee and went back to the kitchen, “Back to work, after all maybe this prototype will be the one, and then you can give Piers the life he deserves and make sure what happened never happens again,”.

She set the coffee cup on the counter and sat back down at the table as she began to work on her Dynamax band design again.

The silence in the apartment was only cut by the rhythmic tick of the clock on the kitchen wall. 

A sudden knock at the door caused a startled chill to go through Oleana’s body.

“Probably Diane,” thought as she stood up from the kitchen table, “She probably wants me to come to watch her practice or go out for a quick drink,”.

Oleana stretched lightly before she went to open the door, the softness of the navy blue rug tickling her feet.

A towering figure with long black hair, eyes the color of storm clouds, pallid skin (so much so you could see some of the veins in his face), and bony figure. He smelled of cigarette smoke, alcohol, and extremely cheap cologne. She knew that scent anywhere. Ignatius “Iggy” Horace Whittaker.

“Long time no see,” Iggy said, a devilish grin on his face, “Eh, _Ollie_?”.

Oleana took a step back, Iggy stepped forward and shut the apartment door behind him. How _dare_ he come back to her, especially after he left her alone all those years ago.

“ _Why are you here_?” Oleana said through gritted teeth, her fists balled up like she was about to pummel the man who was two heads taller than her, “ _What do you want_?”.

Iggy stepped forward again, “Where is the kiddo? I want to see him,”.

Oleana stepped back, _rage_ pulsated through her entire body, how _dare_ he ask about Piers, how dare he ask about the son he _abandoned_ before his birth, “His name is Piers, not like you would know though. He’s at school,”.

“How about I go see him?” asked Iggy as he tapped his chin and looked up at the ceiling before looking down at Oleana again, “He must be _dying_ to meet me,”.

“You’re seriously getting on my last nerve you _bastard_ ,” thought Oleana as she wished she could say it out loud.

“ _Absolutely not_!” Oleana instead hissed, “He has no desire to see you nor does he have any desire to meet you. Now, why did you come here? Just to _torture_ me with your _presence_?”.

Iggy laughed at his ex-girlfriend with a hearty laugh and signature smile, “Still have your wit? I guess some things _never_ change,”.

Oleana crossed her arms over her chest and let out a growl of frustration at Iggy, “Yes I still have it. Now quit avoiding my question!”.

“Okay, Ollie, I’ll stop with the stalling. I want to be in Piers’ life,” he said as he sat down on the couch, “I have finally realized my mistake of abandoning him and I want to try to fix it by being there for him,”.

Oleana suppressed the urge for a shocked expression to appear on her face, “You-you, you want to be in your sons’ life? _After nearly eleven years_?”.

Iggy nodded at the pale blonde woman, “Yes. As I’ve said before I want to work on having a relationship with him. Even if I won’t get to have much of one with him. I still want one,”.

“Sure, until you leave again because you think fatherhood is too hard,” Oleana thought incredulously, “As if I haven’t seen this a thousand times over,”.

Oleana shook her head, “I’m sorry but I just don’t believe you. If you really wanna be in our son’s life you’re gonna need to prove it. Just like how Nadia proved she was sorry after Piers had his accident. Besides Piers won’t be able to spend time with you for quite a while,”.

“Then I will prove it!” Iggy said, his teeth showing and his fists clenched, “I’ll prove it to you and him!”.

“Good, now come back at three o’clock. I have work to do and Diane’s concert is tonight so I have to make sure I’m well-rested for that,” Oleana said, “So I guess it’s time you leave,”.

Iggy stood up from the couch, “I guess you’re right Ollie,”. Iggy walked over to the door and opened it, “I have _a lot_ of catching up to do!”.

The door then swung closed as he left, which left just Oleana in the apartment. 

“Well that was certainly a face I thought I would never see again,” Oleana said in a low voice, “Only time will tell if he’s true to his word. Men like him usually come and go with a drop of a hat. But I know that he’s probably just come back around because that band he’s in is on hiatus or they kicked him to the curb,”.

Oleana went into the kitchen and sat down in the chair she had fallen asleep in last night. She then quickly buried her face in her hands and stomped her foot, “I can’t _believe_ myself!”.

Oleana just grunted for a moment, “He better not pull any surprises at the concert tonight. Diane would blow a gasket if he showed his mug there, Nadia would too, I wouldn’t be surprised if Diane beat him up on the spot. And tonight is supposed to be a nice night for all of us,”.

Ever since Nadia had returned to the life of her younger sister, the glamorous model and been hanging around Spikemuth quite a bit. Especially around Spikemuth’s bug type gym leader Diane and if Oleana didn’t know any better than she would have thought the two had become good friends instead of girlfriends. The two lovebirds were quite happy together and already cared for each other deeply.

And if Oleana were to admit it she was a bit jealous with their luck in love when she herself was so unlucky in it. 

“Don’t focus so much on the fact all your friends are dating or married. Enjoy your life with Piers, after all being single does have its perks. I have more time to focus on Piers, work, and school and I don’t want to rush in for a bad match like what happened with Iggy,” Oleana told herself, “And besides you have your whole life ahead of you. _Don’t_ rush yourself,”.

Oleana stood up from the chair and went back to her bedroom, she threw her black tank top and the plaid shirt onto her bed. She could fold them up later. Right now she just needed to change into something else, the sour taste of Iggy’s presence lingered in her mouth and mind. Tonight if he dared show, she would stick him right in his place, and she needed to be dressed as so.

She pulled her black tank top back on before she tied a heavily spiked belt around her waist. She then pulled on her beat-up black combat boots she’d owned since she was sixteen and then tied the fraying laces. 

Oleana then plucked her makeup from her dresser and put it on, she didn’t often wear makeup but when she did it was always a dark, grungy look completed with a burgundy shade on the lips. She would have to touch it up before tonight, but it didn’t matter, not to Oleana at least. She finished applying her makeup before she looked in the mirror. Perfect, not a single smudge present on her face.

She then slid a skull rung onto each of her fingers before she heard the phone ring in the kitchen. She quickly strutted out to the kitchen and picked up the phone.

“Hullo,” she said, “How may I help you?”.

There were a few moments of dead silence from the other end, probably teens making a prank call or just a scam caller trying to get money.

“Hullo, is this Piers Iskra’s mother?” asked the somber voice on the other end, “This is the Spikemuth Middle School secretary, Mrs. Jennifer Fleming. He’s not in trouble, don’t worry,”.

At the somber tone of the woman’s voice, Oleana felt her heart drop. What happened? _Did Piers get hurt_? Ten million thoughts raced through her head as she thought of her baby boy being hurt or something else bad had happened to him. Arceus, it felt like when she had learned Piers had landed in his hospital last year after his accident.

“Yes, this is his mother,” Oleana’s voice began to tremble as she spoke, “Did something happen to him? Is he alright? Is he hurt?”.

Another long silence, only broken by the muffled noise of flipping papers from the other end of the phone. The idea of not knowing, it was absolutely suffocating to the young woman. _Was her son hurt_? _Was he sick_? 

Finally, the muffled sound of flipping papers ceased and the woman cleared her throat before she spoke, “He’s fine, he’s not hurt or sick, but you need to come down to the school as soon as possible. We’ll explain more when you arrive,”.

The line went dead. Oleana felt her heart in her throat as she slapped the phone back into the holder. They hadn’t even bothered to tell her what the situation was, classic, it appeared the school hadn’t changed much since the years she was in attendance there.

But, Oleana did as she was told and headed out the door to get to the school. The unknown news awaited her upon her arrival.

* * *

_Piers felt the freezing void lock around him. He could see only the darkness, was this it? Was this how he died?_

* * *

Piers arrived at the dilapidated school with his scrawny hands clutched to his backpack straps. The halls were a crowded mess of students, noise, and the _awful_ scent of body odor.

Piers squeezed his way through the crowd in order to get to his year seven classroom. He felt the people brush against him as he squeezed through the crowd.

He stumbled slightly as he made it out of the crowd, the skinny boy began to make his way up to the second level of the school, his shoes hit the chipped and filthy tile that made up the flooring of the school stairs (and the rest of the flooring in the school too).

The noise began to fade as he walked down the hallway of the second story, as for some unknown reason everyone liked to congregate in the first-floor hallway before school started despite having been repeatedly told not to time and time again. But even as he walked down the hallway he could still hear the noise. The entire school was basically just an echo chamber.

He finally arrived at his classroom and opened the door. Two people sat inside.

One was the teacher Mrs. Davenport who sat at her desk in the form of the classroom as she graded yesterday’s tests. The other was Lina, who sat at a chipped wooden desk as she fiddled with the camera she had on her hands.

Piers went over and sat beside the scrawny girl (who was looking a bit more bony than usual too), and the second he did he caught the slate scent of saltwater.

“Hey, Lina,” said Piers as he tried to start up a conversation with Lina.

Lina turned to him with her camera in her hands, the cuffs of her sweater filled with holes, “Morning Piers. You’re still going to Diane’s concert tonight?”.

“Yeah. My mum’s coming with me too. She and Auntie Diane have been best friends since they were little kids,” Piers replied, “Are you going to?”.

Lina gave a small smile and paused for a long moment before she replied in a whisper voice, “Yeah, after all. Who would miss it?”.

“Certainly not me!” Piers replied with a chuckle, “My mum promised she’d go in full punk dress tonight,”.

Lina released a little giggle and she gave a ginger smile as she continued to fiddle with her camera, “That’s nice,” Lina then looked up, “Oh! I forgot to tell you I ran into that Nadia Iskra lady at the store. She’s a model I think, I don’t know what she’s doing in Spikemuth. I didn’t talk to her or anything, I just eavesdropped on her while she bought something,”.

Piers’ ears perked up, “Nadia Iskra is my aunt! She was probably there getting something for my mum or Aunt Diane”.

“Really? I mean I don’t think someone as glamorous as that and someone as brainy as your mother could be related,” Lina laughed lightly as she had a raised eyebrow of disbelief, “Then again, who could know? People share their last names all the time. Like the most common last names in Galar are Smith and Jones,”.

“I know but see her and my mum together and you’ll see the family resemblance,” said Piers as he laced his fingers behind his head, “Given my mum and I don’t look much alike. With her being a blonde and me having black and white hair,”.

Lina looked down at her camera as she adjusted the knob, “Yeah, but then again not everyone who is related looks like, I certainly don’t look like some of my siblings or my……..,”, she trailed off suddenly like she had said something she wasn’t supposed to say.

The phone rang in the front of the classroom, and Mrs. Davenport answered it was a soft, “Hullo,”.

The two looked at their teacher as she talked on the phone, her expression unchanging as she listened to whoever was on the other end.

“Oh, yes. They’re in my room, I’ll tell them goodbye,” said Mrs. Davenport.

“Lina, Piers. You two need to go up to the office,” Mrs. Davenport told her two students, “You two aren’t in trouble or anything, the headmaster just wants to have a chat with Lina in particular,”.

“I wonder if this is about the Spinarak I set loose in his office,” wondered Piers as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

Lina however looked as though Mrs. Davenport had struck her right across the face. Lina trembled as she put her backpack on, something was definitely wrong and Piers could see that now. Her breaths were short and fragile, and her skin got even paler than it already was.

“Piers I know what this is about,” Lina said once the two got out of the classroom, “And I’m so, so, so sorry for not telling you sooner,”.

“What happened?” Piers asked as his voice grew to a comforting tone, “You can tell me, I won’t get mad, I promise,”.

Lina was silent for a few moments as the two walked down the hall towards the office, only the air conditioning was the only noise as the two walked closer to the office.

A tear fell from Lina’s eye, “It’s my mum…. I’ve never told anyone this, but she’s been sick for a long time. And especially after the twins left, it’s been difficult for her, and she passed away this early morning in the hospital before I went to school. I-I was with her when she died,”.

Lina finally broke down and the tears streamed down her face, it was like she was holding all this in for a long time and now, and only now, she was finally able to let it out.

Piers looped his arm around her shoulders as they walked, “I’m right here Lina, whenever you need me, I’m right here,”.

“ _Thank you_ ,” Lina whispered in a breathless voice in between her tears, “ _Thank you_ ,”.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During me writing the last part of this chapter You Will Be Found Came on and I admit, I shed a few tears.
> 
> But don’t worry, the next chapter picks right up where this one left off!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again. Sorry for not updating for a month plus again. It’s just I can never seem to focus, and school work is piling up, plus some personal stuff.  
> I promise next update will come sooner.  
> But I’ve been wondering this question for awhile now: why does everyone hate Diane? I mean sure she’s immature and a party animal. But she genuinely cares about people and is a big help to Oleana and Piers. I’ve genuinely been wondering about this question ever since Diane first appeared.  
> Also a second thing: I’ve been considering removing the Marnie/Bede from Ultra SWSH for awhile now. Especially considering the information we learn later on in Ultra SWSH about his family. And with his actions and hair trigger temper in the latest chapter of the manga has honestly made me consider this even more. So I just decided so go ahead and do it, because it doesn’t really make sense for them to be together in Ultra SWSH just from a character standpoint and a storytelling standpoint too. Also Bede freaks me out in the manga, he’s so violent. And since this takes inspiration from the manga, well. You get the point.

**“Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time… It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other. ”**   
**\- Leo Buscaglia**

Oleana sat in the chilly headmasters’ office of Spikemuth Middle school with her arms crossed over her chest.

Next to Oleana sat her sister Nadia. The blonde sisters stared at their former headmaster with slight contempt. His stern gaze was currently directed at a file cabinet he was shifting through while the three adults waited for the two ten-year-olds to arrive so they could begin the conversation.

“I have no clue what’s taking those two so long!” Headmaster Worsley grumbled as he pulled two files from the filing cabinet before he slammed the door to it shut, “But then again Piers is your son and Lina-,”.

“Cut it, Worsley. We don’t need that right now,” Nadia hissed, her normally cool front dropped for a moment, “Besides can’t you just tell us what’s going on without the kids?”.

There was a moment of silence where all that could be heard was the noise of the school’s beaten to near-death air conditioner kick on. Arceus, that thing must have been immortal, especially since it had been like that when Oleana had been in attendance.

“I’m afraid not Nadia,” Headmaster Worsley said with an annoyed sigh, “I see at least one of the Iskras hasn’t dropped their attitude since leaving. I just need to find out about the other eleven now,”.

Nadia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest as she sat back in the chair. An annoyed grunt exited her mouth when her back hit the chair.

Oleana looked at her sister, true, the Iskras were famous around this school for all having cheeky attitudes of some degree, with Oleana having had the biggest of all.

A knock came at the door. It was quick and short, yet still audible enough that it caught the attention of the three adults in the room.

“Come in,” headmaster Worsley said in a gruff tone.

The door opened and in walked Piers and Lina. The first one had a somber look on his pallid face, while the seconds’ eyes were red and puffy from tears and were all sniffly.

“Ah, yes. Piers and Lina, take a seat you two,” headmaster Worsley told them, “If your expressions are anything then I suppose Lina has already told you the news,”.

Piers nodded as he sat down in the chair next to Nadia’s.

Lina looked like she was about to burst into tears once again as she sat down in the chair next to Piers. She released a loud sniffle as she nodded.

“Are you ready to tell them Lina?” headmaster Worsley asked, his voice was uncharacteristically compassionate and soft now, not hard or gruff like it had been all the times Oleana had ever interacted with him.

Lina nodded weakly, an aching silence followed her nod, before finally, she spoke, “Promise you won’t get mad?”.

“Lina, this isn’t the type of news to be getting mad over,” headmaster Worsley said, his voice became somber as he spoke while the expression on his face became a match to his current tone.

Another still silence followed. It almost ached more than the first, whatever Lina’s news, it wasn’t good.

“Well,” Lina said, her voice beginning to break, “It’s my mum, I’m so sorry I never told you about what’s going on, mum told me to tell you and Miss Melony but I didn’t listen to her. I am so, so sorry,”.

Oleana’s eyes went wide as the girl paused once again. Tears threatened to spill from Lina’s eyes any second, she could almost hear the gagging and aching sobs that looked like they were about to come forth from her.

“Lina tell us when you’re ready, you shouldn’t force this out of yourself,” Nadia said in a motherly voice, her face giving a sympathetic expression.

Lina swallowed a large gulp in her throat before she once again continued, “My mum……….she was sick for a very long time and after the twins left, things started to get even harder for her. And well, she passed away early this morning,”.

Nadia cupped her hand over her mouth as Lina began to wail. Piers wrapped his arms around his friend as she continued to cry. Oleana just stared at the girl unsure of what to do.

“Mum,” Oleana thought, her own mother now entered her thoughts for the first time in years, “Where are you? Especially after dad, are you and the others okay? No, don’t think about yourself Oleana, think about Lina. She needs you right now,”.

“Lina, if there is anything I can do to help you right now just tell me,” Oleana said in a soft voice, “Piers and I are here for you whenever you need us,”.

Lina looked up from her hands, her teary eyes absolutely scarlet from all the tears. She gave a short nod, which Oleana thought was supposed to mean thank you.

“Lina, Piers, you two don’t have to stay the day. You can go home, figure things out, it’s already been a tough day for the both of you,” headmaster Worsley said as he wrote something down in Lina’s file, “Especially for Lina,”.

“Thank you, sir, that means a lot,” said Lina as she pulled Piers’ lanky arms from her body, “I think Piers and I will take you up on that offer,”.

Headmaster Worsley nodded, “I’ll inform Mrs. Davenport of both your absence. I trust you two can receive the days’ homework from classmates?”.

“Yes sir,” said Piers in a flat voice as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, “We can,”.

The headmaster nodded, “That will be all, you four may leave now,”.

“Thank you for inviting us sir, we’ll do all we can to help Lina,” Oleana told her former headmaster as she stood, Oleana thought she saw Lina wince when she said that.

“Thank you, Sir,” said Lina, her voice somber, “It’s very nice of you to do this,”.

Headmaster Worsley nodded again, “You may be on your way,”.

And so the four of them left the school building. Not one of them spoke a word.

As they descended the front entrance of the school a small rustle came from the bushes, and out popped a little Toxel. Pouty expression and all, crawling on all fours.

“Rune!” Lina shouted, her voice had a ting of happiness in it as she began to race down the steps.

“Lina!” Nadia gasped as she darted after the ebony-haired girl, “What are you doing!”.

Lina swooped the Toxel into her arms, “I missed you today Rune, old Worsley let me go free early,”.

The Toxel made a happy noise as the three Iskras descended the steps.

“Lina! That Pokémon is wild! It could be dangerous!” Nadia scolded as she crossed her arms over her chest, “You know the rules,”.

Lina slowly turned around, “Sorry Miss Nadia, it’s just. Rune has been living with me for the past few months, and since I don’t have enough money for a Pokéball. I just let her roam, she follows me everywhere I go, like a little toddler,”.

“Well, still. You shouldn’t rush ahead like that, it’s dangerous,” Nadia scolded once again, “Even if Rune is your Pokémon,”.

Lina nodded, “Let’s just continue on,”.

And so the four of them did. Now with Lina’s Toxel Rune safely in the arms of her trainer.

* * *

_ “Am I all alone?” whispered Piers. _

* * *

The two ten-year-olds entered the blue carpeted bedroom of Piers. 

The voices of Oleana and Nadia faded into the distance as he closed the door behind Lina.

Piers threw his backpack onto the floor and Lina gently set hers down so as to not disturb Rune.

There was a long silence after this, as neither knew how to open up a conversation after such news. 

“Do you have somewhere to stay?” asked Piers a crack in his voice, “Surely you could stay with your siblings?”.

Lina stared at Piers, she looked as though he had just struck her across the face with no warning.

Lina replied, her voice cracked and shaky, “I can figure something out. I figured it out when Mum got sick and I can figure it out now,”.

Figure something out? That was a common phrase around Spikemuth, and whenever it was said, it usually wasn’t for anything good.

“Lina, did you live with your mum for the final few months of her life?” Piers asked, “Tell me the truth, I promise I won’t get mad,”. 

Lina plopped down on Piers’ messy bed as she pet Rune softly, “If I tell you, you have to promise you won’t get mad, scream at me, yell at me, or whatever. I can’t deal with anymore screaming or yelling,”.

Piers sat down beside his friend and looped one of his long arms around her skinny shoulders, “You can tell me anything Lina, I promise, you can tell me as much or as little as you want,”.

Lina paused as she and her voice trembled, “No, I didn’t. After she got too sick to take care of me anymore she told me to go live with a friend or one of my siblings,”.

“And who are you living with right now?” Piers asked as he lightly rubbed her shoulder.

“No one,” Lina replied, her voice still utterly broken, “As of last Monday I’ve been living in the homeless shelter, before that it was in an abandoned building, during the winter I floated around between some friends. I haven’t had a steady place to live since November of last year,”.

Piers felt as though he had been smacked head-on by a semi-truck. Nowhere? She had to be kidding right? She had to be, Lina would ask for help, Lina wouldn’t strike out on her own. Not when she had people who could take care of her, right? Right?

“November! It’s May right now!” Piers whispered, his voice trembled, “You’ve been living on your own for two months? Why didn’t you go to anyone for help? My mum, Aunt Nadia, Aunt Diane, and Miss Melony surely would have been able to help,”.

“It’s not like you or any of the others would have had much patience with me. Especially as my mum grew worse,” Lina snapped, “All of you have your own problems anyway. Your mother can’t afford another mouth to feed, Miss Nadia has her own life, Miss Melony has Gordie plus the new baby on the way, and Diane? Diane? Are you crazy? You think she’s ready and responsible enough to take care of or even help someone like me?”.

Piers nearly darted up from the bed, he knew Lina was in pain, but it still stung to hear her insult, Diane.

“Lina, I just want to know, _why_? Why did you not go to anyone for help?” Piers looked away from Lina for a moment, maybe he didn’t want to know the answer to the question he had asked, but it was too late now for the words had already left his lips.

Lina took a deep breath in as Piers returned his worried gaze to her, “Because, I learned from the time I was a baby to not trust anyone but myself. People leave, they always do, my siblings all shot off as soon as they could and never once looked back. And when mum got too sick to take care of me, I decided I could take care of myself, I could strike out on my own just like they had done. And I have a roof over my head and food in my belly every morning and every night. It’s not much, but it’s enough. After all, I helped take care of my mum plenty of times, so I can take care of myself and I’ve been doing it for half a year anyway,”.

Piers fell speechless, any words he might have told her were gone. Lost to the wind.

“I guessed you’d react that way” Lina released a pained chuckle, “Besides. My mum knew yours, a long time ago, she made some mistakes but she loved your mum very much,”.

“W-what are you getting at Lina?” Piers asked as his voice shook, “What are you talking about,”.

Lina shut her eyes and took a deep breath in, before she breathed out and opened her eyes, “What I’m saying is, well, as you know your mum had many siblings. And well, I’m your aunt,”.

Piers’ eyes went so wide he felt as though they would pop out of her sockets. This was just another time to add to the counter of how many times he felt speechless today. Aunt? No, Lina was three days younger than him, it couldn’t be.

“I don’t understand, how can this be?” Piers’ eyes darted around the room.

“We have the same last name, your mother has twelve siblings, I have twelve siblings, your grandfather died in a mining explosion the day before you were born, and your grandfather, Nicholas Iskra, is my late father,”.

“My mum, she doesn’t know that her mum died, neither does Aunt Nadia. How are we gonna tell them?” Piers asked as his voice became frantic.

“I will. I’ll figure something out, give me ten minutes,” said Lina.

And Piers just hoped ten minutes would be enough time.

**  
  
**

* * *

_ “Cold, so cold,”. _

* * *

“How are we gonna tell Lina’s siblings about this? We barely even know who they are or where they live,” Oleana said as she leaned against the kitchen counter.

Nadia straightened herself up in her chair, “Right, we’ll find a way. Don’t worry, but more importantly, if her siblings can’t take her, where is she gonna live?”.

“I would take her in but money is tight, and Diane is so busy with preparing for the gym challenge I’d hate to add to her stress,”.

Nadia nodded as she spun her coffee mug around, “Once I graduate. If no one else can take her, I can. After all, I’ll be making plenty of money as a pharmacist so I’ll be able to support her,”.

Oleana nodded as she looked down at the floor, a moment of silence between the two sisters.

A knock came to the front door, “Ollie it’s me!” came Diane’s pained voice.

Oleana went to go open the door and when she did. A disheveled Diane stepped in, with a solemn look on her pale face.

“I need to tell you and Nadia something. Are Piers and Lina here?” Diane asked as she turned to face her friend.

“Y-yes? Why?” Oleana’s voice became filled with a light shock at her friend’s request.

Diane paused in the entryway of the apartments’ tiny kitchen and turned to face Oleana, “I think it would be best they hear the news too,”.

Diane continued into the kitchen as Oleana knocked on the door to her son’s bedroom.

“Piers, Lina, Aunt Diane wants you to come out to the kitchen,” Oleana said.

Within a few moments, the two children followed Oleana out to the kitchen and sat down at the table’s two remaining seats.

No one spoke a word for a few moments. No one dared to speak.

“Nadia, Oleana, I’m sorry I have to tell you this, but your mother died early this morning. She was sick for a long time and her body just gave out,” Diane’s voice began to tremble, “She’s gone,”.

Oleana clenched the countertop, the room was spinning, no mum wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be, Diane got it wrong, their mother was still alive. She couldn’t be dead, they still had younger siblings who weren’t fully grown. She couldn’t be, she had to be alive. 

Oleana saw as Nadia buried her face in her hands and could hear her murmur, “Mum. Oh, mummy, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry,”.

“I know you never got the chance to meet her Piers but I know she would have loved you very much,” Diane said, the somber tone still in her voice,

This wasn’t happening, this had to have been some sick and twisted nightmare! She had to wake up!

“Thank you,” Piers’ voice was barely a whisper.

_ WAKE UP DAMN IT! _

Oleana slammed her fist into the glass that sat next to her. The shards clinked as they fell to the floor along with droplets of blood. Oleana’s heart slammed against her ribs, shit, this wasn’t a nightmare after all.

Oleana breathed heavily as she looked up, “I’m sorry, I-I’ll just go get a dustpan and sweep everything up,”.

“No,” Diane said as she went to retrieve the first aid kit, “Stay there and I’ll get the first aid kit from your bedroom, cover your cut and get the bleeding to stop”.

Oleana quickly snatched the towel from the kitchen counter and wrapped her hand up in it all while applying pressure.

“Arceus, are you alright mum?” asked Piers, “those cuts looked pretty nasty,”.

“I’m fine Piers, I just got a bit overwhelmed is all. Don’t worry about me,” Oleana told her son, “After all, I’ll be fine,”.

“What about our siblings? The youngest three aren’t even eighteen yet, where are they?” asked Nadia, “I know Alicia is in Kalos, Nikolas just finished up his residency, Jakob just became a Mechanical engineer, and I don’t know about the others,”

“Well, about that,” Lina interrupted, “I have some-,”.

“I got the kit Ollie,” Diane said as she opened up the kit on the table, “Let me see it,”.

Oleana unraveled the towel around her hand, blood had dried to her hand, but the bleeding had stopped.

“It doesn’t look too bad,” said Diane as she inspected the cuts on Oleana’s hand, “And the bleeding stopped too. Clean it up and I’ll get the bandages ready,”.

Oleana quickly cleaned up her hand before she once again dried it.

“What were you going to say, Lina?” Nadia asked, “You said you had something to say,”.

“Are you sure you want me to tell you, Miss Oleana is hurt,” said Lina, “After all, it can probably wait,”.

“No, no,” Oleana said as Diane began to bandage her hand, “You can tell us,”.

There was a long moment of silence that followed, Oleana saw her son give Lina a reassuring look.

“Well, my mum is Miss Nadia and Miss Oleana’s mum,” said Lina, a hint of terror in her voice.

The hair stood up on Oleana’s skin, “Well, well……,”

Oleana thought for a moment before she could think of something else to say.

“-We’re very excited to meet you, though we wish it were under better circumstances. We’re here for you in any way you and the others need,” said Nadia, “And we love you very much and we’re going to take very good care of you.

Oleana nodded in agreement, “Mum knows you’re in good hands with us. Even though I kinda scared mine up a few minutes ago,”. 

Lina gave a weak smile, “I’ll go to get my things later today, I don’t have much so I probably only need one pair of extra hands to help me carry it,”.

Oleana nodded as Diane finished bandaging her hand.

“We’re here for you and we’re going to be a family,” said Nadia, “A proper family too,”.

Lina cracked a small yet weak smile, “Thank you, that’s just what I needed to hear,”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’all better be ready for the next chapter. It’s gonna be a rollercoaster. Also it may be happy now. But by now you all know the drill, angst city dead ahead!  
> Also   
> Iskra siblings, in order + their present day ages + their ages in this part of the story  
> Nadia - 46, 31  
> Nikolas - 45, 30  
> Jakob -45, 30  
> Oleana -44, 29  
> Alexei -43, 28  
> Sofia -38, 23  
> Basil - 37, 22  
> Natalia - 36, 21  
> Alicia - 35, 20  
> Neva - 31, 16  
> Milan - 30, 15  
> Marik - 30, 15  
> Lina -26, 10 (Turns 11 during Piers’ gym challenge)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I’m back again. Before I continue with the chapter. I have a question to ask all of you. How would you guys feel if I added in my autistic Oleana and autistic Marnie hcs to this fic? I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and I was wondering what people think about it. And of course this will mean some of the parts of different chapters will need to get changed and certain things like stimming will get added in and Oleana’s backstory will change some too. And I have been researching on how to portray autistic characters and calling back on my own experiences as an autistic person myself in order to write them.  
> But I want to know what you guys think about this. Please put your answer/thoughts down in the comments down below. I would very much appreciate feed back on this and if you want to help me And/or be my sensitivity reader you can contact me on my Instagram at peculiarpancakes.  
> And as always you can make fanart of any scene in my fic just send it to me on my Instagram at Peculiarpancakes or tag me in the post and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Piers watched as Lina picked up the bag filled with her possessions up off of the floor of her room. Piers held the other bag filled with the rest of what she owned in his arms, while Rune kept near the feet of her trainer.

“I can’t thank you enough for helping me Piers,” Lina said as she looked into the bag which held her possessions, “I don’t want Nadia and Ollie to find out what happened, not yet at least,”.

Piers twitched a little, still not used to hearing his mother called by her first name by Lina. But, he supposed he’d better get used to it, especially since Lina had been revealed to be his aunt (which was a whole other shock to him).

“I suppose my mum won’t have to find out, especially since we can keep this a secret,” said Piers with a wink, “Your secret’s safe with me Auntie Selina,”.

Lina rolled her eyes, “Don’t call me that. It feels weird,” Lina scoffed.

Piers chuckled with a cheeky smile on his face, “Whatever, let’s just get home, my mum, Aunt Nadia, and Aunt Diane should be waiting for us,”.

Lina nodded as the two stepped forward, Rune trailing behind them on all fours.

“Piers,” Lina said as the two exited onto the street, “ I’m not sure I can forgive my mum,”.

Piers stopped dead in his tracks then turned to look at Lina, “Why? Did something happen?”.

“You could say that,” Lina said softly, “It’s not because she couldn’t take care of me anymore or because of what she told me to do. It’s just, I’ll explain it later,”.

And with that Lina walked on to Oleana’s apartment and Piers followed her. It wouldn’t be a good idea to push any one of his relatives for answers now. So he just continued on after Lina in silence. He could wait to get his answers anyway, after all, he could wait for a lot of things.

* * *

_ Oleana laid curled up in the darkness as she shivered. _

_ “Mummy!” she could hear Marnie’s anguished cry echo throughout the void. _

_ Oleana lifted her head and chest off the floor of the void, it felt as though she were completely made of stone, “Marnie? Where are you!”. _

* * *

“Yes, Jakob. But do you think you could get some time off from work to come?” Nadia asked her younger brother over the phone, “Oh, I understand. Yes, I’ll talk to you again later. Tell Nikolas I said hi. Goodbye,”.

Nadia set the phone back in the holder as Oleana examined her hand.

Nadia had been calling their siblings ever since that morning. But as expected few answered, and the ones that did only offered a short conversation before they continued on with their lives.

Oleana herself couldn’t blame them, after all, her parents had thrown her out when she had gotten pregnant with Piers and barely set any boundaries for their children. It had been nearly eleven years since she had last seen her parents, eleven years since her father had been blown to bits in a mining explosion, eleven years since she had graduated high school, eleven years, so why was the wound so fresh? Why did it still sting the way it did? Why did it still hurt so bad?

“It feels wrong to think poorly of a recently dead woman but I’ll never forgive mum for kicking me out. I don’t think I ever will,” Oleana thought as she continued to examine the bandage, “And part of me feels bad for that. She’s my mother. I should forgive her, it’s what you're supposed to do when someone dies. You’re supposed to forgive them. But I can’t forgive her. Not for kicking me out in a time of need,”.

“But Nadia, Nikolas, and Jakob did the same, they refused you asylum when you had nowhere to go. They left you with Dagmar, who in turn threw you out and then sped off from this hellhole three days later. And why should the three of them be any different than mum, dad, or Dagmar? Especially Nadia, who lived the high life while you rotted away here,” the voice in Oleana’s head told her, “All six of them left you to rot, all six of them turned their back on you in your time of need. Why forgive Nadia? Why forgive any of them? They hurt you,”.

“I don’t know,” Oleana thought, “I forgave Nadia because she proved herself to have become a better person than the one she was in our last meeting prior. The twins I don’t know. But Mum, dad, and Dagmar I can never forgive them, they knew the harm they were doing. They knew and did it anyway,”.

“-And Nadia, Nikolas, and Jakob didn’t? They did exactly what mum, dad, and Dagmar did to you! They knew you needed help and they withheld it from you! They’re no better than mum, dad, or Dagmar! Maybe Nadia is better now, but she still hurt you in your time of need. You don’t need to forgive them, hell, you don’t need to forgive anyone Oleana, no one. You have the right to forgive people or not, simple as that, so perhaps you need to learn that lesson. You know you can make it on your own. After all, you’ve been doing it for eleven years and you can keep doing it for eleven years and counting. So why do you pick and choose who to forgive when they’ve hurt you?”

“I-,” Oleana began to respond to the voice, but the outside world cut into her train of thought.

Nadia’s voice flooded the ears of her sister, “Diane told me she saw Iggy today, he was talking to a few of his old high school buddies about him meeting you earlier. He didn’t give you any trouble now did he? He was talking about how he was excited to finally meet ‘ _his boy_ ’,”.

“No, he didn’t,” Oleana lied, the last thing she needed was Diane and/or Nadia ripping someone’s face off today, “He just asked about Piers and I showed him the door. I told him if he wanted to be in Piers’ life he needed to prove it and that was that and I showed him the door. But of course, that was before the news about mum,”.

Oleana looked at her best friend and sister. Both of their arms were crossed as they looked upon her, Oleana could tell they were a bit upset even though they both wore neutral expressions on their faces.

“Ollie, you aren’t letting him meet with Piers are you?” Oleana could the twinge of anger in Nadia’s voice as she spoke.

Oleana gulped and slowly stood up, “I’ll admit, it wasn’t a smart decision. I told Iggy to come back here at three. I told him Piers wouldn’t be able to spend time with him for a long time. But I worry since Piers was supposed to get his endorsement tonight from Diane, oh _fuck_ -,”.

That’s when the realization slapped Oleana across her pretty and pale face, Piers would be back by the time Iggy arrived. And she couldn’t believe it, she could already picture Piers’ face, crimson in rage at the sight of his father appearing unannounced at the home of him and his mother. He wouldn’t speak to her for a week a least. Not only that, but the gym challenge didn’t start for another month. Which meant Piers would be free during it. Oh fuck, oh fuck. Why couldn’t she have thought of a better thing to tell Iggy? Of course, she hadn’t anticipated Piers would go home early, or that her mum would pass away. But she had to make due.

“Piers is gonna be home when Iggy gets here. And I don’t know what to do!” Oleana felt her heart slam in her chest, she began to feel warm, and like the world was ending. “I’m so stupid!” Oleana cried.

“Look, we’ll think of something, I promise,” said Diane as she uncrossed her arms, “Do you want me to get you some tea? Or to help you with those breathing exercises my Aunt June taught us?”.

Oleana fell back into her chair, her body warm, it felt like she had come down with a fever. She wanted, go to her bedroom, turn off all the lights, curl up in her bed, and just scream her lungs out.

“I want to _scream_ my lungs out,” Oleana said as she pulled her skinny knees up to her chest, “I just want to _scream_ ,”.

“That’s understandable. And we understand, we can help you talk to Piers about this if you like,” replied Nadia, “I have a book in my bag on what to do when you meet an estranged relative in my bag. It helped me with you, so I suppose it could be of use here and there’s a section in the book for when you meet an estranged parent,”.

“Yeah. Let’s use that, after all. But I’m going to give him the choice on whether or not he wants to meet Iggy or not,” said Oleana, “It’s his choice, not mine,”.

Nadia nodded, “Now let’s get that book and get started,”.

* * *

_ “Piers? Piers? Are you there? Please wake up!” Piers could hear his sister cry as he felt her shake him, “Please Piers, don’t leave me!”. _

* * *

Piers and Lina returned home ten minutes later.

“I’m home mum!” Piers called as he shut the door behind his friend, “We got Lina’s stuff too!”.

“Piers can you come into the kitchen for a minute?” Piers heard his mum call back.

Piers and Lina set her stuff down by the front door and the two kids went to the kitchen.

Piers noticed immediately the serious expressions on the faces of his Aunt Nadia, Diane, and his mum.

“What do you need, mum?” Piers asked as he and Lina sat down across from the three women, “Is it anything important?”.

Oleana sighed, “Well, your father met with me unexpectedly this morning, telling me he wanted to meet you and he’s coming over at three so I could talk to him and make sure he was serious about meeting you before he even got the chance to meet you. I didn’t expect you to come home early, and well. Do you want to meet your father?”.

Piers felt as though his mother had just _struck_ him. His father, he had never really thought of his dad much, and why _should_ he? After all his father was off being a punk rock superstar as he toured the world with his band. And besides, he had his mom, Aunt Diane, Aunt Nadia, Miss Melony, Lina, Gordie, and his other friends too. _Why would he need his dad?_

Though part of him was curious. Did his dad look like him? _Why_ did his dad want to meet him? Was he serious? Would he finally get a relationship with his dad this time?

“ _Maybe_ he really wants to know you, just this once trust someone, after all, if he made it past mum and she didn’t pulverize him immediately that must be a good sign,” Piers thought hopeful his father was serious, “After all, think of all the stuff dad and I will get to do together. Like go to concerts, go out to dinner with him, introduce you to your idols, and he’ll get to meet Zigzagoon too. And mum and I won’t have to worry about money anymore, I’ll get to go to one of those schools mum wants me to go to, and I’ll have enough money to do the gym challenge too! Trust him, Piers, trust him,”.

Oh if only he knew. Oh if only he had an inkling of what was to come. Maybe it was for the best he didn’t know what was to come in the slightest.

“Yes mum,” Piers said with confidence as he sat up y’all in his chair, “I’m ready to meet dad,”.


End file.
